Why Joan Rivers' staff are still being paid almost a year after her death

Joan Rivers. Photo / supplied

Joan Rivers' staff are still being paid.

It is believed the comedienne - who tragically passed away after surgery complications last year - wanted her housekeeping staff and beauty team to be financially secure even after she died.

A source said: "Melissa [Rivers; her daughter] is still paying everyone; she's still taking care of everyone, because that's what Joan asked her to do. She's being a guardian angel.

"If you worked for Joan, she paid you a good salary, she covered your health care, she paid for your kid to go to college, and it was a job for life. Melissa has continued their health care and has helped everyone for the past year without a complaint."

And the 47-year-old television producer has been particularly close to Joan's assistant of 20 years, Jocelyn Pickett.

The insider added to the New York Daily News' Confidenti@l column: "Jocelyn was left Joan's dogs, so Melissa checks in. It's Melissa being a good daughter because this is what her mom would have wanted."

Meanwhile, Melissa recently joked she is becoming "less tolerant" like her mother.

When asked what similarities the pair have, she shared: "She always said that I had a much more of a temperament like my father - which, thank God, because one of us had to be calm and sane! I'm very driven just as she was, the humour, the sensitivity ...

"And I've found that in the last ten or eleven months I've become more like her in that I am less tolerant! I've had a couple of those moments where I've gone, 'Oh dear God, I've become her' ... which is every child's nightmare!"

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- Bang! Showbiz