Naya Rivera’s ex-husband Ryan Dorsey has revealed the horrifying moment their then-4-year-old son witnessed the Glee star’s death on July 8, 2020.
Rivera disappeared while boating on Lake Piru outside Los Angeles nearly five years ago. Her son, Josey, was found sleeping on the boat but his mother was nowhere to be found. Five days later, her body was discovered, with her death ruled an accidental drowning.
In a new interview with PEOPLE, Dorsey says that Josey, now 9, still feels guilt over not being able to save his mother.
“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 told the outlet. “I keep reassuring him, ‘Buddy, that rope wasn’t going to be long enough.’”
The 33-year-old actress vanished after renting a pontoon boat with her son. While he was later found alone on the watercraft, Rivera never made it out of the water and back on the vessel.
Rivera and her son were swimming on Lake Piru when she noticed the boat she had rented had started to drift away. As she and Josey swam back to the craft, he was able to grab ahold of “the tanks” and pull himself “around the boat.” A police report said she likely drowned after exhausting herself getting Josey to safety.
“He said that the last thing she said was his name, and then she went under, and he didn’t see her anymore,” Dorsey recalled. “It just rocks my world that he had to witness her last moments.”
Dorsey, who appeared on Justified and Ray Donovan, learned that Rivera had vanished when he got a call from her mother’s husband while he was shopping for groceries.
“I collapsed into a pallet of drinks,” Dorsey recalled when he heard the news. “I feared the worst.”
Dorsey said that the thought of losing both his ex-wife and son left him feeling helpless. “If we’d have lost both Naya and Josey, I don’t know how I would continue on with my life,” Dorsey told PEOPLE. “I don’t know what I would’ve done, but I’m sure it wouldn’t have been good.”
Rivera’s estate and Dorsey settled a wrongful death suit against the County of Ventura, Ventura County Parks and Recreation Management and United Water Conservation District in 2022.
Court documents obtained by Fox Newsclaimed the rental agent “did not warn Naya to wear (a life) vest and instead merely put the vest in the rental boat.”
She also wasn’t warned “about the dangerous conditions on the lake” the day she rented the boat.
A native of Santa Clarita, California, Rivera was a child actor who found stardom playing a lesbian teen Santana Lopez on Glee, which aired from 2009 until 2015.
Rivera’s death followed other dark tragedies that hit the show, which was co-created by Ryan Murphy.
In 2013, Cory Monteith, who played the popular jock Finn Hudson, died of an accidental drug overdose in Vancouver. He was 31. Monteith, who had been open about his substance abuse problems, was dating Lea Michele, who saw her own career take a hit in 2020 after accusations of racism and bullying by fellow Glee cast member Samantha Ware.
Meanwhile, Rivera’s ex-boyfriend Mark Salling, who portrayed Noah “Puck” Puckerman on the show, killed himself in 2018 after pleading guilty to child pornography charges.
In the preface to her 2016 autobiography, Sorry Not Sorry: Dreams, Mistakes, and Growing Up, Rivera wrote that becoming a mother changed the way that she looked at her life.
“Your life doesn’t have to be perfect for you to be proud. In fact, I think it’s the opposite: the more imperfect your life has been, the prouder you should be, because it means you’ve come that much further, and also probably had a lot more fun along the way.”
In his interview with PEOPLE, Dorsey said he is trying his best to raise a “good little man.” He also said that Josey has a “book of memories” that he keeps near his bed.
“During the holidays he was crying looking at it,” Dorsey said. “You can only give him a hug and tell him, ‘I know, life is not fair. Bad things happen and there’s no reason for it, and you just have to do your best to be a good person.’”