Ryan Dorsey is opening up about the most devastating moment of his and his son’s life — the death of Naya Rivera.
As Perezcious readers know, the actress took with their son Josey on a boating trip to Lake Piru in Ventura County, California, on July 8, 2022. The little guy was 4 years old at the time. What started as a fun day of swimming turned into a tragedy. Naya never made it back to the pontoon boat they rented — and the world soon learned she had drowned. Officials believe the Glee star used all her strength to get Josey back on the boat but was too exhausted to get herself to safety and slipped under the water. She made the ultimate sacrifice as a parent.
The incident was already heartbreaking enough — one of the saddest deaths we’ve ever heard about. But now, for the first time since the tragic accident almost five years ago, Ryan sat down for an interview with People on Wednesday… and revealed a new gut-wrenching detail. Their son, now 9 years old, has a lot of guilt because he couldn’t save his mom!
According to Ryan, Josey tried to and even located a rope he could use to grab her. However, he became “scared” to use it… when he saw a spider. The Justified star explained:
“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. I keep reassuring him, ‘Buddy, that rope wasn’t going to be long enough.’”
Heartbreaking.
It should go without saying, but Josey is NOT to blame for Naya’s death. He was 4, for goodness sake. A little kid. There was no way he was going to be able to pull her to safety, she didn’t even have the strength to hold onto the boat.
But sadly, these kinds of thoughts, wondering if you could have done something differently, can haunt you forever. It’s crushing. Hopefully, Josey can one day see that he is in no way, shape, or form at fault here. Oof.
In the interview, Ryan went on to recall the tragedy some more. He shared that Josey later told him that it had been windy that day and was worried about getting into the water, even asking Naya if they were going to “die.” Jeez. But she replied:
“Don’t be silly!”
So chilling. Ryan said that after some time in the water, Naya realized the boat started drifting away and told Josey to swim back. According to the actor, his son remembers grabbing “the tanks,” pulling himself “around the boat,” and hearing the last words from his mother:
“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.”
No child should ever have to witness something so awful as this. Our hearts break for Josey, they really do.
Ryan recalls finding out Naya disappeared when he received a call from her mom Yolanda’s husband while grabbing food for a friend’s birthday barbecue at a Ralph’s supermarket in Big Bear Lake. The second he heard about what happened, Ryan said he “collapsed into a pallet of drinks” and “feared the worst.” He then got into his car and raced over to Lake Piru:
“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. I just wanted to get to Josey.”
Josey, thankfully, was OK physically. He was found asleep on the pontoon boat. Ryan continued:
“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.”
When Naya’s body was found five days later, like so many of us, Ryan couldn’t believe she wasn’t here anymore:
“When it happened, I just found myself shaking my head, like, ‘I can’t believe she’s gone.’ It’s still so surreal every day.”
What happened is unimaginable. We continue to send so much love and light to Ryan and Josey. Watch his emotional interview (below):
[Image via Naya Rivera/Instagram]
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