Naya Rivera’s Son Josey Tried to Throw Her a Rope the Day She Drowned. His Dad Ryan Dorsey Reveals What Stopped Him (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Naya Rivera’sexRyan Dorseyis sharing a heartbreaking new detail about the day theGleestar died at 33 on July 8, 2020.

In this week’s issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, the actor, 41, says in his first sit-down interview since Rivera’sdeaththat their sonJosey, now 9,still holds guilt for not being able to save his mom as he watched her drown while they were swimming off a rental boat in Lake Piru in Ventura County, Calif.

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

Dorsey says Josey, who was only 4 at the time, also remembers that it was windy that day, and he describes being worried about getting into the water, but his mom told him, “Don’t be silly!"

Ryan Dorsey photographed with son, Josey at Calamigos Guest Ranch in Malibu, Calif.; Naya Rivera.Anais & Dax; Presley Ann/Getty

Anais & Dax; Presley Ann/Getty

After some time swimming, Rivera noticed the boat — which hadn’t been equipped with an anchor or flotation devices, points that Dorsey included in thewrongful-death lawsuithe filed on behalf of Josey against Ventura County that was settled in 2022 — was drifting.

She told Josey to swim back, and he remembers grabbing “the tanks” and pulling himself “around the boat,” says Dorsey. (The incident report said Rivera drowned after exhausting herself getting Josey back on the boat.)

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

Ryan Dorsey and son Josey at Calamigos Guest Ranch in Malibu, Calif., on Feb. 3.Anais & Dax

Anais & Dax

Dorsey found out that Rivera was missing from a call from her mom Yolanda’s husband. At the time, he was in a Ralph’s supermarket in Big Bear Lake, Calif., getting food for a friend’s birthday barbecue.

“I collapsed into a pallet of drinks,” Dorsey recalls. “I feared the worst.”

He immediately got into his car and sped the 145 miles to Lake Piru.

“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.”

Josey had been found asleep and alone on an adrift pontoon boat that Rivera had rented three hours earlier that day.

“If we’d have lost both Naya and Josey, I don’t know how I would continue on with my life,” Dorsey says. “I don’t know what I would’ve done, but I’m sure it wouldn’t have been good.”

Ryan Dorsey at Calamigos Guest Ranch in Malibu, Calif., on Feb. 3.Anais & Dax

After five days of searching, Rivera’s body was found on July 13, in a remote part of the lake.

“When it happened, I just found myself shaking my head, like, ‘I can’t believe she’s gone,'” Dorsey says. “It’s still so surreal every day.”

As he and Josey navigate life without Rivera, Dorsey — who moved from L.A. to his home state of West Virginia with his son two years ago — admits the holidays are still especially tough.

“It’s hard trying to explain things that you can’t really make sense of no matter what age you are,” he continues. “I’m not a big believer in everything happens for a reason because I can’t ever think of a reason why he doesn’t have his mom.”

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Naya Rivera and son Josey in 2019.Gregg DeGuire/Getty

Gregg DeGuire/Getty

While they certainly still have their hard moments, Dorsey says Josey is “such a happy kid.”

“He wakes up happy, all energy,” he says. “I’m trying to be the best parent that I can be and raise a good little man. He gives me a reason to keep going with my life.”

source: people.com