Ryan Dorsey Reveals 1 of the Last Things Naya Rivera Said to Their Son Before Her Death

Glee star Naya Rivera’s ex-husband, Ryan Dorsey, is opening up about raising their son alone nearly five years after Rivera’s death.

Rivera died in July 2020 while on a boat with her son, Josey, who was then 4.

According to reports, Rivera and Josey, now 9, had rented the boat and were sailing on Lake Piru in California. The pair had jumped off the boat to swim when the boat began to drift away from them.

Rivera managed to get Josey back on the boat before she drowned. She was 33 years old.

Now, Dorsey, 41, is continuing to keep Rivera’s memory alive.

In an interview with People published Wednesday, February 12, Dorsey is revealing the final words Rivera said to Josey just before her death.

Dorsey said it took Josey a while to share this with him, but eventually Josey said that he and Rivera “jumped in and I said, ‘Are we sure about this?’ She’s like, ‘Yeah.’ He’s like, ‘Oh, my God, are we going to die?’ And Mommy said, ‘Don’t be silly.’ He said, ‘And we jumped in and that’s what happened.’”

Dorsey said because the boat wasn’t anchored down, it started to drift away from them.

Rivera told Josey to get back to the boat and he swam back. “I still can’t figure it out,” Dorsey told People. “It doesn’t make much sense how he was able to get on and she wasn’t.”

Dorsey said, over time, Josey has been able to recall more details from that horrific day.

“He said that the last thing she said was his name, and then she went under, and he didn’t see her anymore,” an emotional Dorsey told People. “It just rocks my world that he had to witness her last moments.”

Dorsey recalled the day he received the call from Rivera’s mom’s husband, who shared the news that Rivera was missing.

“I instantly said, ‘What do you mean? She knows how to swim,’” Dorsey said. “He 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.”

He was 145 miles away from Lake Piru, People reported.

“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. I just wanted to get to Josey.”

Dorsey admitted that as a result of what Josey has been through that he treats his son “differently than I would 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. I don’t know if that’s a bad way to go about raising him, but it is the cards we were dealt,” he explained. “I’ve never been one to talk about my life like this. I’ve turned down so many of these kind of things, because it was too hard. I still can’t really look at pictures of her, and it’s still hard to talk, but I feel like I’m ready. There’s just so much that happened.”

Dorsey continued saying that Josey still battles with the guilt of not being able to save his mom, as does Dorsey.

“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 People. “I keep reassuring him, ‘Buddy, that rope wasn’t going to be long enough.’”

Dorsey, who still can’t look at photos of Rivera, also admitted that he wonders whether the outcome of that day in July would have been different if he had been with them on the boat.