Kelly Rizzo Says There's 'No Room for Judgment' After Being Criticized for Moving on from Bob Saget 'Too Fast'
As Rizzo defended herself for starting a new relationship with Breckin Meyer two years after the death of Saget, she also emphasized how there's "no one size fits all" approach for grieving and moving forward
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Kelly Rizzo and Bob Saget in 2021Kelly Rizzo is not allowing others to dictate the decisions in her life.
On Sunday, the actress and podcaster, 44, shared a video to her TikTok, in which she responded to a user who defended her for moving on with Breckin Meyer two years after her husband Bob Saget died.
In the video, she opened up about how losing a spouse is different for everyone and said that "unless you are a widow or a widower, you truly have absolutely no place and no right to comment on this, because you do not know what it's like."
“The vast, vast, vast majority of all of the comments and feedback and support and everything I've gotten since Bob passed, 99% has been positive and lovely and wonderful,” she began her nearly 5-minute video. "But there are some people who just love to talk.”
“You just don't understand the incredibly complex and difficult and dynamic thoughts and feelings that come up during this entire process,” Rizzo continued.
Related: Kelly Rizzo Opens Up About What's 'Been Helpful' After Husband Bob Saget's Death
The actress said that even months or years after a spouse dies, widowers experience feelings of grief, guilt and loneliness.
“You feel guilty, you feel shamed, you feel horrible, but yet you also feel lonely, and so you wanna do it,” she said. “At some point, when it crosses your mind to even think about starting to date again, [you have] those thoughts.”
For Rizzo, she said she had the “support and love” of Saget’s family — including his daughters Jennifer, 31, Lara, 34, and Aubrey, 36 — as she considered dating again.
"They're telling you it's OK, but yet you still feel really weird about it,” she explained, later adding, "In my situation, it was Bob's daughters, Bob's friends. They were saying, 'It's OK.' So I'm like, 'OK, it must be OK.' But you still need to feel OK with it and [have] peace with it in your heart.”
“I didn't personally get to that point until well after a year after Bob had passed,” she continued. “And then I didn't start dating until 18 months or so after Bob passed.”
The Full House star, who died in January 2022 at age 65 from head trauma, was previously married to screenwriter Sherri Kramer. They welcomed three children together before they split in 1997. In 2015, Saget met Rizzo and they married three years later.
Rizzo began dating her now-boyfriend Meyer earlier this year, but she noted that the timeline looks different for everyone.
"Sometimes men move on just a couple of months after their spouse passes away and sometimes people never do," she explained. "It's not one size fits all, but there is absolutely no room for judgment. You cannot judge whether you've been through the same thing or not, it is not your place to judge because everyone goes through it differently."
“You know how important your loved one was in your life,” she continued. “And as long as you are honoring that and honoring them and being true to your feelings, and you know that you're also having the love and support and trust from your spouse’s loved ones and friends, then you can't be doing it wrong.”
“Bob is always gonna be a part of my life,” she concluded her video. “And I'm very fortunate that I was able to find someone who holds space for that and appreciates it and gets it, and is strong enough and confident enough to know that Bob's always gonna be a part of my life.”
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Breckin Meyer and Kelly Rizzo at the Jam for Janie Grammy Awards Viewing Party presented by Live Nation at Hollywood Palladium on Feb. 4, 2024Rizzo has been candid about grieving Saget's death before. In January, she spoke with PEOPLE in 10 about sharing some stories about their time together in her new book, and in October, Rizzo opened up to PEOPLE about “always” celebrating Saget no matter what.
"I think that for as long as I live, I'm always going to want to be celebrating Bob and talking about Bob," Rizzo said at the time. "It makes me happy to talk about him."
In early February, PEOPLE confirmed Rizzo was dating Meyer after they stepped out at Steven Tyler’s annual Grammy Awards viewing party hand-in-hand, making their first appearance as a couple.
"It took a while to get to the point where I'm like, ‘OK, I think he'd be happy with it’” Rizzo told E! News at the party.
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Days later, the two were photographed out and about in Los Angeles holding hands.
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