Joan Rivers recently spoke out about her feud with fellow E! host Chelsea Handler, saying that she disapproved of how Handler left the network and her show Chelsea Lately.

Joan Rivers Thinks Chelsea Handler Made A Mistake

“I think she made a mistake, the way she left E!,” Rivers said during an interview with HuffPost Live.

When pressed, Rivers said she did not believe that Handler had been fired, but hinted that Handler was not leaving the network on good terms, saying, “They’re lovely at E!, and they’re nice at E!, and I thought she left badly.”

Joan Rivers Explains Feud With Chelsea Handler

Rivers went on to address the rumors of a feud between the two comedians, admitting that there was “tremendous tension” between them.

According to Rivers, the tension stems from a time when Rivers publicly called out Handler on her claims that she was the first woman to host a late night talk show. Rivers frequently acted as guest-host of the Tonight Show when it was still in the hands of host Johnny Carson in the ‘70s.

“She came out saying things like, ‘I’m the first woman ever to do a late-night show.’ She did this one day, and I followed her on the dais and I said, ‘I guess everyone’s forgotten the [Johnny] Carson show.’ She never spoke to me again,” Rivers recounted.

Rivers went on to say that she approached Handler at an E! Network party and tried to mend fences by posing for a photograph together, but Handler ignored her.

“I thought, ‘Oh, you stupid girl.’ It’s a small business, we should all be friends,” Rivers concluded.

However, this is not the first time Rivers has mentioned a conflict with Handler, and previous interviews reveal there’s much more to the story. In 2012, Rivers criticized Handler in an interview with Howard Stern, accusing Handler of sleeping her way to the top.

“She’s an ordinary girl that was f—king somebody high up in the industry and they gave her a break and she’s doing okay,” Rivers told Stern, alluding to Handler’s four-year relationship with Comcast Entertainment CEO Ted Harbert.

When Handler was on Howard Stern’s radio show the day before, Stern asked her about Rivers’ comments and Handler told a completely different story about their feud. According to Handler, Rivers got up at a Network event and started bashing Handler in front of everyone.

“Joan Rivers gets up and she’s like, I’d like to thank Chelsea Handler for giving me a career in comedy (mock laughing), and congratulations on your stage, Chelsea, because I don’t even have a dressing room,” Handler recounted.

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More on Chelsea Handler and Joan Rivers:

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_{> Chelsea Handler's Last Episode Of 'Chelsea Lately' To Air In August}

Article by Olivia Truffaut-Wong

Olivia Truffaut-Wong was born and raised in Berkeley, California, where she developed her love of all things entertainment. After moving to New York City to earn her degree in Film Studies, she stayed on the East Coast to follow her passion and become an entertainment writer. She lives on a diet of television, movies and food.