The young son of the late Glee actor Naya Rivera tried to save his mother when she drowned in 2020, a new interview has revealed.
The actor went missing on July 8 of that year, age 33, after going on a boat trip with her then four-year-old son Josey. He later told authorities that his mother disappeared under the lake water. A body was found on July 13 that was confirmed to be that of Rivera.
In an interview with People, Ryan Dorsey, Josey’s father who was married to Rivera from 2014-18, talked about how their son recalls the incident. “He said that the last thing she said was his name, and then she went under, and he didn’t see her anymore,” he said. “It just rocks my world that he had to witness her last moments.”
Dorsey, an actor on shows such as Ray Donavan, also said that Josey still feels guilt that he might have done more to save his mother. He revealed: “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.”
He continued: “I keep reassuring him, ‘Buddy, that rope wasn’t going to be long enough.’ That obviously still sticks out in his head because he feels like he could have saved her. I think she just got caught up in a brush — that or a weird undercurrent from the dam. It was just a freak occurrence.”
Following Rivera’s death, her Glee co-stars posted tributes to her, reuniting at the 32nd annual GLAAD Media Awards which honoured her character Santana Lopez’s status as a beloved LGBTQ+ character.
In 2022, Rivera’s family reached a settlement with Ventura County over a wrongful death lawsuit.
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