The actor and comedian died in January.
Kelly Rizzo is opening up about her late husband. In an interview with ET's Kevin Frazier, Bob Saget's widow reveals what she misses most about the late actor and comedian, who died in January of accidental head trauma.
"I want to say everything, but just his protection," Rizzo tells ET. "... I 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 so 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," she continues. "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."
Rizzo also misses Saget's sense of humor, something she's able to look back on frequently thanks to his many interviews, stand-up specials and TV shows.
"There was nobody that had a sense of humor like Bob," she says. "It was wicked and hilarious... Nobody can make you laugh like Bob."
In the wake of Saget's death, Rizzo says her grief "comes in waves," explaining, "I'll have a good day, and then I'll have three horrible days, and then I have a couple good days."
Amid that emotional rollercoaster, Rizzo works hard to keep Saget's memory alive. One way she does that is by supporting the Scleroderma Research Foundation, a cause that was close to Saget's heart.
"It was his life's work. 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," Rizzo says. "They've made so much progress because of his efforts. To even have a small part in continuing what he did for the foundation just makes me feel like, 'OK, he'd be proud of this. He'd be happy that I'm doing this.'"
Saget, Rizzo believes, would also be happy about the relationship she's maintained with his three adult daughters -- Jennifer, 29, Lara, 33, and Aubrey, 35.
"I see them all the time. They'll stay with me when they come to town... We're just so grateful and thankful that we have each other through this, 'cause I couldn't imagine it without them," Rizzo says. "They're just incredible. We're all kind of handling it pretty similarly, where we're OK, and we're functioning and going about our life, but he was such a huge, massive force... It's a massive adjustment and a massive loss, but at the same time, they are so strong. We just keep thinking, 'He would want us to be happy, so that is what we're going to do.'"
It's a mix of all those things -- humor, charity work, and family -- that Rizzo believes will be her late husband's legacy.
"He was all love and that was the biggest legacy... that legacy of love and laughter. That's what he brought to this world, those two things, and that's also what he brought to his friends and his family," she says. "... 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. That really resonated with people."
As for her own legacy, Rizzo is striving to find her happiness again through Eat, Travel, Rock, the venture she started about a decade that focuses on food, travel and music.
"Eat, Travel, Rock TV is my web series where it's food, travel, music. More recently I started doing a lot more, obviously, on social media," she says. "And then I have Eat, Travel, Rock Productions, which is my production company where I create really cool content for restaurants and hotels and hospitality."
Since moving into a new home, Rizzo says she's also picked up cooking again, something she and Saget enjoyed doing together in the house they shared.
"During the pandemic, I started really cooking a lot more and sharing all my recipes, whether it's been on TV segments or on social media," she says. "... I just started getting back into it again in this house and it's been really, really fun to kind of ramp up the cooking and really get back into making recipes, because it's been therapeutic for me... I've had so many people say, 'I lost my mom two years ago and I haven't been able to cook... and now you inspired me'... That feels very fulfilling to be able to kind of give back in that way."
Rather than focus on her loss, Rizzo -- who married Saget in 2018, three years after meeting him on social media -- says she's "in a place now where I’m just so grateful for the time that I had."
"Bob lived 65 years on this planet and probably a thousand lifetimes in those 65 years... He did more in his life than most people could ever dream of. He truly made the world a better place and changed the world. What more can you ask for?" Rizzo says. "I’m just so grateful that I was a part of it for the amount of time that I was, and that I had him in my life for the time that I did."
"He truly never thought that he would find somebody again. He just assumed and thought he was going to be alone," she says. "... That’s why it's hard for me to focus on the negative or the sad, because I'm just so happy that I was able to come into his life and that we made each other so happy, that he was able to have that happiness in his life and that we were able to have this wonderful life together. That’s just what I focus on... I’m just so grateful that I got to be in his life."
Tune in to Wednesday's episode of Entertainment Tonight for more of ET's interview with Rizzo.
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