Rivers refuses to apologize to women held captive

FILE - In this April 22, 2013 file photo, Television personalities Joan Rivers, left, and daughter Melissa Rivers attend the 2013 Matrix New York Women in Communications Awards at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, in New York. Attorneys for two women held in a Cleveland home and abused for a decade say Joan Rivers should apologize for comparing living in her daughter's guest room with the captivity they experienced. Rivers and her daughter were discussing their reality show Tuesday, April 22, 2014, on NBC's "Today" show when she complained about her living arrangements, saying, "Those women in the basement in Cleveland had more space." (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, file)

FILE - This May 7, 2013, file photo, shows a house where three women, Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight, who went missing separately about a decade ago, escaped from captivity in Cleveland. Attorneys for two women held in the Cleveland home and abused for a decade say comedian Joan Rivers should apologize for comparing living in her daughter's guest room with the captivity they experienced. Rivers and her daughter were discussing their reality show Tuesday, April 22, 2014, on NBC's "Today" show when she complained about her living arrangements, saying, "Those women in the basement in Cleveland had more space." (AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File)

CLEVELAND — Joan Rivers refuses to apologize for comparing living in her daughter’s guest room with the captivity of three women kidnapped in Cleveland.

Rivers and her daughter discussed their reality show Tuesday on NBC’s “Today” show and she complained about her living arrangements, saying, “Those women in the basement in Cleveland had more space.”

In a statement sent to The Associated Press by her publicist, Rivers says it was a joke she made as a comedian. She says the women are free and people should move on. She says she’s “thrilled they are OK.”

A statement from attorneys for Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus had called Rivers’ remark hurtful and said she should apologize.

Berry, DeJesus and a third woman escaped from kidnapper Ariel Castro’s home last year.