Melissa Rivers Speaks Publicly for the First Time Since Joan Rivers’ Death

Joan Rivers wasn’t the only one in her family who was good for a laugh. During her first public speech since the death of her mother, Melissa Rivers joked that she’s now an orphan.

The 46-year-old actress said that when she was approached to speak at the Hollywood Reporter‘s annual Women in Entertainment breakfast, which celebrated the release of the magazine’s power 100 list, she was “overwhelmed.”

“Not just because it is the first time I’m speaking in tribute to my mother, but because every single person in this room could hire me, and a few have actually fired me. You know who you are but I don’t want you to feel bad … but technically I am now an orphan,” Rivers said Wednesday.

The past three months have been “different,” she said, adding that she’ll remember her mother as being “fearless.”

“I don’t mean she didn’t have any fears,” said Rivers. “I mean that although she was only 5’2”, she stood tall and walked through them,” she said, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “She was willing to say what others were thinking and too frightened to admit. She never apologized for a joke and no topic was taboo and she was fine with that.”

[THR]