Melissa Rivers believes Kathy Griffin disrespected Joan Rivers' "legacy"

She said: "I'm just gonna say it wasn't a match on a lot of levels.

"My biggest complaint was the feeling that she kind of s*** all over my mother's legacy in her statement on leaving. And I know that was not an intentional reading of it, but that's how I felt ... by calling the comedy and the style of it old-fashioned. It was like, I understand what you were doing, you're trying to save yourself, but don't c**p all over my mother to do it."

The 47-year-old actress went on to criticise the public spat between the show's panelists Kelly Osbourne and Giuliana Rancic over the latter's controversial comment about 18-year-old actress Zendaya at the Oscars earlier this year, saying it "smashed" the memory of her mother, who passed away from complications with surgery in September.

She told Hoda Kotb at the 92nd Street Y: "We were a family, cast and crew ... and we went back too soon. And just like a family, when the matriarch dies, the sisters started fighting; and someone tried to marry in - not a great match, live and learn. 'Fashion Police' was a little jewel and it was the last piece I had of my mother ... I felt like all these people were so out of control, including the person who made the allegation about racism. They took the last thing I had and smashed it."