She was offered the role in Three’s Company after she got a gig at The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, where she began reading poetry in front of a national audience every month.
Instead of meeting her demands, Suzanne Somers was fired.
“When I got fired, I thought, ‘I should never have asked. Why did I ask? Why did I think I could get paid what men are being paid? Who did I think I was?”‘ she recalled in 2015.
“Rather than thinking, ‘Hey, c’mon. I have the highest demographics of any woman on television. I’m on the No. 1 show. I’m doing the heavy lifting, too,’ I went right into low self-esteem. I hid in my house for a year in absolute grief.”
The two co-stars reunited after 30 long years on Suzanne’s talk show Breaking Through and got to discuss their different paths in life. “I have relentlessly said that it is my opinion that the only reason Three’s Company is worth remembering is that it created an opportunity for all of us to laugh together, to celebrate joy. It’s a profound gift,” Joyce said on the show.

Following Suzanne’s passing, Joyce DeWitt expressed her grief and paid tribute to her friend.
“My heart goes out to Suzanne’s family,” she told People. “They are a very close family — deeply connected and caring one to the other. I can only imagine how difficult this time is for all of them.”