Naya Rivera’s ex-husband Ryan Dorsey is speaking publicly about the “Glee” actor’s 2020 death for the first time.
In an emotional interview with People published Wednesday, Dorsey said his 9-year-old son, Josey, feels guilt over not having been able to save his mother from drowning in California’s Lake Piru.
“Something he’s said over and over is that he was trying to find a life raft, and there was a rope, but there was a big spider on the rope, and he was too scared to throw it,” Dorsey explained. “I keep reassuring him, ‘Buddy, that rope wasn’t going to be long enough.’”
Dorsey continued: “He said that the last thing she said was his name, and then she went under, and he didn’t see her anymore. It just rocks my world that he had to witness her last moments.”
Rivera was declared missing on July 8, 2020, while on a boating and swimming trip on Lake Piru. Officials found Josey, who was 4 years old at the time, asleep on a pontoon boat Rivera had rented earlier that day.
Dorsey, known for his roles on “Justified” and “Ray Donovan,” and Rivera split in 2018 after about four years of marriage, but enjoyed an amicable co-parenting relationship. The actor said he immediately “feared the worst” when he received a call from Rivera’s stepfather informing him that his ex had gone missing.
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“I instantly said, ‘What do you mean? She knows how to swim,’” he recalled, noting he was in a supermarket in Big Bear Lake, California, when he took the call. “He said, ‘They jumped in, and Josey got back on, and they’re trying to find Naya.’ I collapsed into a pallet of drinks.”
He said immediately left the supermarket and headed to Lake Piru, about 145 miles away.
“I drove 100-and-something the whole way with my four-way hazards on, chain-smoking cigarettes — and I don’t even smoke, really — and just crying,” he said. “I just wanted to get to Josey.”
Ryan Dorsey and Rivera were married from 2014 to 2018. Stefanie Keenan via Getty Images© Stefanie Keenan via Getty Images
He added, “If we’d have lost both Naya and Josey, I don’t know how I would continue on with my life. I don’t know what I would’ve done, but I’m sure it wouldn’t have been good.”
Rivera’s death was confirmed a few days later on July 13, when her body was retrieved from a remote area of the lake. She was 33.
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The People interview appears to be the first time Dorsey, 41, has spoken at length about Rivera’s death. In 2021, he marked the 1-year anniversary of his former spouse’s passing with a heartfelt tribute on Instagram, much of which served as an update on Josey.
“He misses you but knows he’ll see you again,” he wrote, “and the invisible string is something that’s helped us out during this ever-evolving transition of your time with us on earth that was unfairly and for reasons we’ll never understand cut short… too soon…”
In his People chat, Dorsey confirmed that he and Josey had relocated from Los Angeles to West Virginia about two years ago. Describing his son as “such a happy kid,” he nonetheless acknowledged that the holiday season is a particularly fraught time for the two.
“It’s hard trying to explain things that you can’t really make sense of no matter what age you are,” he said. “I’m not a big believer in everything happens for a reason because I can’t ever think of a reason why he doesn’t have his mom.”
