Kelly Rizzo, the wife of the late comedian Bob Saget, revealed on Thursday what she misses the most about her husband, who died from accidental head trauma in January.
“I want to say everything, but just his protection,” Rizzo told ET. She added, “It felt safer with Bob in the world, ’cause he just took care of everybody so much. He was such a protector and a caretaker. He just made you feel safe. He handled everything. He took care of everything.”
“With him around, I just felt, like, so safe, and so it’s almost like my shield is gone,” Rizzo added. “But, at the same time, then you learn to do some of those things yourself and then you feel [that] he taught me so many things that now I’m bringing with me. It’s a way to kind of keep him around.”
Saget, 65, was found dead on Jan. 9 while on tour. His family later said authorities told them he “accidentally hit the back of his head on something, thought nothing of it and went to sleep.”
Rizzo told ET that nobody had a “wicked and hilarious” sense of humor like her late husband. She said her grief “comes in waves” and that she might “have a good day, and then I’ll have three horrible days” — and that the cruel cycle then simply continues.
Saget “never thought he would find somebody again” after his first divorce, Rizzo told ET. But that changed when the pair met online in 2015. They married in 2018.
“I’ve never met anybody like him,” Rizzo told US Weekly in 2018. “He keeps me on my toes, literally. He’s just a wonderful guy. He’s a comedian, so there’s never a dull moment! And all of his friends are just so fun because they’re just as fun and unique and complex as he is.”
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Rizzo told ET that Saget would be proud of her relationship with his three adult daughters, Jennifer, Lara and Aubrey.
The late comedian mentioned how “magical” that connection was in 2018.
“Kelly and my daughters love each other, so it really is some magical thing that happened,” Saget told US Weekly, adding he and his wife didn’t plan on having children. He added, “We want to enjoy the love of each other, so that’s something that we want to do. I’ve been a dad a lot. Maybe I’ll be a grandfather one day.”
Rizzo has kept herself busy with “Eat, Travel, Rock” — her production company its titular web series — and by supporting the Scleroderma Research Foundation, which Saget was heavily involved with.
“It was his life’s work,” Rizzo told ET. “Outside of his family, the most important thing to him was this foundation. Scleroderma is the disease that took his sister’s life in the early ’90s and he truly dedicated his life to trying to find a cure for it. They’ve made so much progress because of his efforts.”
Scleroderma is a combination of rare diseases that harden the skin and affect the blood vessels, digestive tract and internal organs, according to the Mayo Clinic. There is currently no cure.
Rizzo added that Saget “did more in his life than most people could ever dream of” and “truly made the world a better place.” She said she was “grateful that I was a part of it” and that his legacy was about love — which she’s unbelievably proud to carry on in his honor.
“I tell people I love them now every time I leave the room or I hug them every time I leave the room because Bob loved his hugs and he loved telling people he loved them,” Rizzo told ET. “That really resonated with people.”