Joan Rivers Passes Away at 81

American comedian Joan Rivers has sadly passed away at the age of 81. Her daughter Melissa made the heart-breaking decision to have her mother’s life-support system turned off earlier today. It was what Joan would have wanted. She once said she would not want to live “if I could not perform. It’s in my will. I am not to be revived unless I can do an hour of stand-up. I don’t fear it.”

Joan was being operated on for her vocal cords in New York on August 28 when she stopped breathing. She was moved to Mount Sinai Hospital where her daughter and 13-year-old grandson have been at her side ever since.

Melissa released a statement shortly after Joan passed away today saying: “My mother’s greatest joy in life was to make people laugh. Although that is difficult to do right now, I know her final wish would be that we return to laughing soon.”

Joan laughed at everything. Including herself (and particularly all her plastic surgery!). Her sharp wit, warm-heartedness and self-deprecation made her one of the most famous female comedians in the world. Nothing was off-limits. Even South Africa’s Oscar Pistorius.

Earlier this year Joan made two references to the South African athlete. In one comment she described someone’s choice of outfit as being so bad that it fell between “marrying Charlie Sheen and using Oscar Pistorius’ bathroom”. In another she said hadn’t seen such bad leg wear on a celebrity “since Oscar Pistorius wobbled to the witness stand”.

The only time she stopped laughing was in 1987 when her husband Edgar Rosenberg (who had actually lived in South Africa for a period of time when his family escaped Nazi Germany) committed suicide. She fell into such a depression that she became bulimic, estranged from her daughter, and almost committed suicide herself…until she realised she had to go on for Melissa’s sake.

The mother and daughter pair then became very close, acting together in various shows and becoming a famous fixture on the red carpet where they interviewed or commented on celebrities and their gowns. Joan was also credited with helping make QVC successful with her humourous way of selling jewellery on television.

It has been reported that just the night before she was hospitalised, she said the following during a stand-up comedy routine in New York: “I’m 81. I could go at any moment. I could fall over right here and you all could say – ‘I was there!'”

In Bette Midler’s words – “What a sad ending to a brilliant and tragi-comic life; one of the bravest, and funniest of all.” RIP Joan Rivers. Thanks for all the laughs.

Watch Video: Joan Rivers on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show, 1986

Joan Rivers and Johnny Carson reminisce about their early careers and she tells hilarious jokes about the Royal Family and Madonna’s wedding. She also discusses her book “Enter Talking”.