He tried to save her: Heartbreaking new details about Naya Rivera’s death emerge

"It just rocks my world that he had to witness her last moments," Ryan Dorsey, the father of their child shared in his exclusive first interview since her tragic drowning.

We all remember where we were on July 8, 2020, when reports broke that Naya Rivera was missing, after a few hours spent on a rental boat in California with her four-year-old son, Josey.

But, her ex-husband, actor Ryan Dorsey, thinks about it every day.

Today, he’s spoken out for the first time since the Glee star’s tragic passing, about her legacy, the impact on their son, and what life is like now, five years on.

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Image: Instagram / Ryan Dorsey.

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The tragic day

Speaking with People, Dorsey recalled the day Rivera died like it was yesterday, having driven from LA to Big Bear Lake, California for a friend’s birthday. He was standing in a supermarket when he got the devastating call from Rivera’s mum Yolanda’s husband, telling him she was missing.

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

Dorsey immediately drove over 200 kilometres to get to Lake Piru to get to Josey, who had just been found asleep and alone on an adrift pontoon boat that Rivera had rented three hours earlier that day.

The boat later had been found not to have been equipped with an anchor or flotation devices, something Dorsey included in the wrongful-death lawsuit he filed on behalf of Josey against Ventura County that was settled in 2022.

Divers spent five days searching for Rivera, until her body was found in a remote part of the lake on July 13.

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“He said that the last thing she said was his name”

Despite being only four at the time, Dorsey said that Josey recalls a lot more from the time than you would expect, with more flooding back to him each day.

According to Dorsey, he remembers that it was windy and describes being worried about getting into the water, but his mum told him, “Don’t be silly!”.

But, after Rivera realised it was unsafe, she told him to swim back, with Josey recalling grabbing “the tanks” and pulling himself “around the boat” before Rivera ultimately passed, with incident reports stating that 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 said.

"It just rocks my world that he had to witness her last moments.”

Dorsey said that the now-nine-year-old still harbours a lot of guilt around what happened.

“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 said.

“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."

What happened next

After Rivera’s funeral, Dorsey took Josey back to his home state of West Virginia to get away from paparazzi.

But, when they eventually did return to LA, he said that Rivera’s younger sister Nickayla, 30, moved in with them for about a year.

“She was such a big help,” he said.

“I had to go to Vancouver for five months and Josey came the last month to stay with me, but during the time I was gone she held it down and kept that consistency. It was very surreal sometimes because the way she would say things to Josey would sound like his mum.”

Image: PEOPLE / Anais & Dax.

Now, years later, the two are back in West Virginia, and face day-to-day struggles navigating life without Rivera.

"We made this book of memories for Josey that sits by his bed, and during the holidays he was crying looking 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’,” Dorsey said.

"It's hard trying to explain things that you can't really make sense of no matter what age you are. 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 mum."

But, otherwise, the two are happy and healthy, with Josey reminding Dorsey of his mum more and more.

“He’s definitely his mama’s son, because when he doesn’t get the answer he wants, he keeps talking,” Dorsey said.

"He likes to talk, and that's mama for sure."

And, he’s even facing pressures from Josey to get back into the dating game.

“It’s sad but sweet that he’s been telling me for years that he wants a brother and a stepmom,” said Dorsey.

"Expecting someone to sign up for my life and his life, it's not easy. I think he's easy, but all the variables, it's a lot to ask from someone."

Originally published as He tried to save her: Heartbreaking new details about Naya Rivera’s death emerge