Yahoo Lifestyle Why Naya Rivera's Son Josey, 9, Still Feels Guilt Over Her Tragic Death
Nearly five years after Naya Rivera's unexpected death at 33, her 9-year-old son still feels guilty about being unable to save her.
The Glee star's ex-husband, Ryan Dorsey, opened up about the tragic drowning accident that took her life in a rare interview with People, where he revealed that the couple's son, Josey, feels a devastating sense of guilt over her death.
According to Dorsey, the boy told his father "over and over...that he was trying to find a life raft" for his mother. There was also a rope onboard the boat, but Josey was too scared to throw it to his mother in the water because "there was a big spider" on it.
Dorsey said he keeps "reassuring him, ‘Buddy, that rope wasn’t going to be long enough,'" but it "obviously still sticks out in his head because he feels like he could have saved her."
Dorsey knows it "was just a freak occurrence," though, speculating that "she just got caught up in a brush — that or a weird undercurrent from the dam."
On July 8, 2020, Josey was found sleeping alone on a drifting pontoon boat on Lake Piru in Ventura County, Calif., approximately three hours after Rivera rented it. Divers searched for five days before they recovered her body in a remote part of the lake. As investigators put the pieces together, the actress was credited with saving Josey's life before she lost her own.
While the two were swimming in the lake—with Josey recalling the windy day making him nervous, and his mom telling him, “Don’t be silly!”—Rivera eventually noticed that the boat, which didn't have an anchor, was drifting away from them. She directed the boy to swim back and is believed to have exhausted herself while ensuring he made it safely back onboard.
“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 with tears in his eyes. "It just rocks my world that he had to witness her last moments.”
Despite the lingering guilt, Dorsey says Josey "is such a happy kid," who undoubtedly takes after his mother, in looks and personality alike.
“He’s definitely his mama’s son, because when he doesn’t get the answer he wants, he keeps talking,” he shared. "He likes to talk, and that's mama for sure."
Dorsey also says he "treat[s] him differently than...a normal kid because of what he’s been through."
“For me, it’s not a big deal if he hears a bad word or if he sees someone get killed on TV," he explained, admitting, "I don’t know if that’s a bad way to go about raising him, but it is the cards we were dealt.”
With those cards, he said he is focused on being "the best parent" to "raise a good little man."
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