Naya Rivera’s ex-boyfriend Ryan Dorsey has – for the primary time – shared particulars from the day she died.
Chatting with Folks, the 41-year-old actor mentioned that “the last thing she said was his (her son’s) name, and then she went under, and he didn’t see her anymore”.
The Glee actress, 33, died after drowning in a California lake in July 2020 – when she was swimming along with her younger son Josey.
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Josey, who was 4 on the time, informed police his mom had boosted him on to the deck – after their boat had drifted away.
Native police mentioned they consider that after saving her son, Rivera didn’t have sufficient vitality to save lots of herself.
Dorsey says his son, now 9, informed him he was anxious about moving into the water – and that Rivera had mentioned, “don’t be silly!”.
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The boat that Naya Rivera was utilizing when she went lacking. Pic: Reuters /Mario Anzuoni
“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 informed Folks.
“I keep reassuring him, buddy, that rope wasn’t going to be long enough.'”
Dorsey added: “It just rocks my world that he had to witness her last moments.”
Picture:
Naya Rivera is best-known for starring in Glee. Pic: Frank Micelotta/Invision/AP
The actor says he discovered that Rivera was first lacking after receiving a name from her stepfather – whereas he was in a grocery store shopping for meals for a pal’s barbeque.
“I collapsed into a pallet of drinks,” Dorsey mentioned. “I feared the worst.”
Picture:
Ryan Dorsey and Naya Rivera. Pic: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
Dorsey mentioned he instantly bought into his automotive and drove 145 miles to Lake Piru, the place Rivera and their son had been swimming.
“I drove 100-and-something the whole way with my four-way hazards on, chain-smoking cigarettes – and I don’t even smoke, really – and just crying,” he says. “I just wanted to get to Josey.
“If we might have misplaced each Naya and Josey, I do not understand how I might proceed on with my life.”
He added: “When it occurred, I simply discovered myself shaking my head, like, I am unable to consider she’s gone. It is nonetheless so surreal every single day.”
Dorsey says the holiday period is particularly tough for his nine-year-old son.
He said: “We made this ebook of reminiscences for Josey that sits by his mattress, and in the course of the holidays he was crying taking a look at it.
“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.'”
In 2022, a lawsuit filed by Rivera’s household towards Ventura County, California, over her drowning was privately settled.
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Naya Rivera on the crimson carpet. Pic: Reuters
The lawsuit for wrongful demise and negligent infliction of emotional misery was filed on behalf of her son.
The household additionally sued the United Water Conservation District and Parks and Recreation Administration, accusing them of failing to warn guests of the hazard of sailing and swimming within the lake, and saying Rivera’s demise was “utterly preventable”.
They mentioned the rented pontoon boat was not outfitted with flotation or lifesaving gadgets, a ladder, rope, anchor, or any tools designed to maintain swimmers from being separated from their boat.
Nonetheless, Ventura County officers mentioned the demise wasn’t their fault, and mentioned the actress had declined to put on a life jacket. They mentioned the rental agent had put the life jacket within the boat nonetheless.
