Practically 5 years after Naya Rivera‘s July 2020 demise, her ex-husband, Ryan Dorsey, is talking out about what their son, Josey, remembers from the day she died. Josey, who was 4 years outdated on the time, was together with his mother when she drowned in California’s Lake Piru.
Now 9, Josey remembers being concerned about getting off the pontoon and going swimming that day, however Naya calmed his fears by telling him, “Don’t be foolish!” Dorsey tells Individuals that his son remembers extra particulars as time goes on, together with that his mother advised him to swim again towards the pontoon when it began drifting, and that he grabbed “the tanks” and pulled himself “across the boat” to get again on.
“He mentioned that the very last thing she mentioned was his identify after which she went below and he didn’t see her anymore,” Dorsey reveals. “It simply rocks my world that he needed to witness her final moments.” An incident report mentioned that Rivera drowned after serving to her son get again aboard the boat and that she yelled, “Assist!” earlier than disappearing underwater.
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“One thing he’s mentioned time and again is that he was looking for a life raft, and there was a rope, however there was a giant spider on the rope, and he was too scared to throw it,” Dorsey provides. “I hold reassuring him, ‘Buddy, that rope wasn’t going to be lengthy sufficient.’ That clearly nonetheless stands proud in his head as a result of he appears like he might have saved her. I feel she simply bought caught up in a brush. That or a bizarre undercurrent from the dam. It was only a freak prevalence.”
Dorsey filed a wrongful-death lawsuit towards Ventura County on behalf of his son, the place he identified that the pontoon Rivera rented was not outfitted with anchors or flotation gadgets. He settled the lawsuit in 2022.
Though Dorsey and Rivera finalized their divorce two years earlier than her demise, he says they have been nonetheless “backwards and forwards” about being a pair. “We have been going to attempt to have one other child and all of the issues,” he admits. “We went to Maui to have a look at locations and get a recent begin, after which we fell out once more. If I knew what I do know now, I’d’ve tried to do issues otherwise to make it work.”
No matter the place they stood, they made positive to place their son first. “He had a great schedule,” Dorsey says. “If one in all us couldn’t do it, we at all times would fill in. We by no means had any actual turmoil about elevating him collectively. We have been excellent co-parents.”