Melissa Rivers sat down for an interview with Howard Stern on Wednesday and revealed to the radio host that she was snubbed by Jay Leno – one of her mother Joan’s more famous foes – shortly after the legendary comedienne’s tragic death back in September.
“My mother passed in September, and I was asked to speak at The Hollywood Reporter Women in Entertainment breakfast at the beginning of December, so it was very fresh,” Melissa recalled. “And I got a text from Sarah Silverman the night before, saying, ‘Oh my god, are you aware Jay Leno’s at our table?’ And I said, ‘No, I [wasn’t],’ and I started to freak out. And she said, ‘I’ll take care of it.’ The next morning – and this is literally my first public appearance – I walk in, and I’m standing, having a coffee in the reception area, and Jay…looks right at me, and looks away. I sort of wrestled with this. Don’t you think you still walk over and say, ‘I’m so sorry about your loss, how are you doing?’ Or, ‘I know there was an issue, but please accept my condolences.’ It would have been closure, and it would have been the right thing to do. … “I just thought to myself, ‘You have no courage.’”
Leno, meanwhile, says he has no recollection of the snub and has a released a statement via his rep.
“If he made eye contact with her, he didn’t recognize it was Melissa,” the rep said. “Had he done so, he would’ve come over to extend his condolences. He apologizes if she was offended, but he did not realize it was Melissa.”
Image via Instagram/mel_rivers
