Rhianna Benson
Five years after her tragic death, the ex-husband of late Glee actress Naya Rivera has opened up about his grief for the very first time.
Ryan Dorsey - who divorced the star two years and one month before she sadly drowned after renting a boat on Lake Piru, California, with their four-year-old son - recalled the final words she sadly uttered to the toddler before sinking beneath the waves.
The 'Santana Lopez' actress was just 33 years old when she drowned while swimming with her little boy, Josey, on 8 July 2020.
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Rivera was considered missing for several days, as the youngster was found asleep in a lifejacket on the rental boat, which hadn't come equipped with an anchor or floatation device, without his mother.
Investigating authorities later determined that the on-screen star had sacrificed her own life to save that of her son's, and five days after her disappearance, her body was discovered in a remote part of the lake.
As we say, in the years that followed Rivera's passing, her ex-husband Dorsey - to whom she was married between 2014-2018 - requested privacy for the sake of the son they shared together.
Only this week has he discussed the impact the actress' death has had on their family.
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Speaking to PEOPLE magazine this week, the 41-year-old began by reflecting on the moment he discovered his former flame was missing, revealing he'd been in Ralphs supermarket when Rivera's mother, Yolanda, called to inform him she was missing.
"I instantly said, 'What do you mean? She knows how to swim,'" Dorsey told the publication. "She said, ‘They jumped in, and Josey got back on, and they’re trying to find Naya.'
"I collapsed into a pallet of drinks. I didn’t know what to think, but I feared the worst."
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Dorsey went on to reveal that their son - who is now nine years old - still has harrowing memories of watching his mother sink beneath the waves.
"He said that the last thing she said was his name, and then she went under, and he didn’t see her anymore," he revealed.
"It just rocks my world that he had to witness her last moments."
The father-of-one added that Josey is still riddled with guilt over the notion that his mother exchanged her life for his.
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"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 explained. "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."
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Dorsey added that, while he wasn't there when Rivera drowned, he believes he 'probably would have jumped in' and 'saved the day'.
"But on the other hand, I think maybe something bad could have happened to both of us," he quickly continued, however. "I don’t know."