Ryan Dorsey Shares His Son Josey’s Tragic Death Story of Naya Rivera

To prevent her from drowning, Naya Rivera’s son attempted to toss her a rope.

Ryan Dorsey, the father of the child, has revealed that his son still feels bad about not being able to help his mother get out of the lake. The “Glee” actress died in July 2022 while swimming off a rental boat in Lake Piru, California, with his nine-year-old son Josey.

Something he has often stated is that he was looking for a life raft and that there was a rope, but he was too afraid to throw it because of a large spider on it, Ryan told People magazine.

I tell him again, “That rope wasn’t going to be long enough, buddy.”

It was a windy day, and Josey, who was just four at the time, recalled that he was anxious about going into the sea, but Naya calmed him.

Upon observing that the boat was drifting after some time in the ocean, the actress instructed her kid to swim back. According to Ryan, Josey recalled snatching “the tanks” and dragging himself “around the boat,” but he tragically saw his mother drift beneath the sea.

Ryan remarked: “He claimed that she disappeared after saying his name as her final words, and he stopped seeing her after that.

“I find it extremely upsetting that he had to see her last moments.”

Ryan remembered driving 145 miles to the lake right away after receiving a phone from Yolanda’s husband, Naya’s mother, informing him that she was gone while he was at the grocery store purchasing groceries for a friend’s BBQ.

As he put it: “I fell into a drink pallet.” I was apprehensive.

As I drove, I was crying, chain smoking cigarettes (I don’t really smoke), and wearing my four-way hazards the entire time. All I wanted to do was reach Josey.

“I don’t know how I would have gone about my life if we had lost both Josey and Naya. I am unsure of my course of action, but I am certain that it would not have been favorable.

Five days after Josey was discovered sleeping by himself on a drifting boat, Naya’s body was discovered in a secluded area of the lake.

Introspection: “I just found myself shaking my head, like, ‘I can’t believe she’s gone,'” Ryan said. Every day still seems so strange.

Despite the fact that Josey is still “such a happy kid,” the 41-year-old actor, who was married to the actress from 2014 to 2018, acknowledged that it is “hard” for him to help him understand his mother’s passing.