Naya Rivera’s 9-year-old son remembers her last word to him before drowning

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Naya Rivera’s son, Josey Dorsey, remembers her final words to him before her tragic drowning almost five years ago.

On Wednesday, February 12, the former Glee star’s ex-husband Ryan Dorsey — a single parent to Josey, 9 — opened up to People about what his son remembers from that harrowing day and their life since then.

“He said that the last thing she said was his name, and then she went under, and he didn’t see her anymore,” Ryan, 41, tearfully told the outlet. “It just rocks my world that he had to witness her last moments.”

Back in July 2020, Rivera, who was 33, rented a pontoon boat in Lake Piru in Ventura County, California, for her and her little one, who was only 4 years old. The actor told People that Josey recalls it being a windy day and was hesitant to get into the water, but his mom reassured him, saying, “Don’t be silly!”

Rivera instructed her son to return to the boat after it drifted away from where they were swimming. Ryan told the outlet his son recalls getting “the tanks” and pulling himself “around the boat.”

Three hours after they initially rented the boat, Josey was found asleep on it, just drifting in the lake.

“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,” the West Virginia native revealed. “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.”

Ryan and Josey left Los Angeles and have been living in West Virginia for the last two years. Ryan shared with the publication that his son hopes to have a sibling and a stepmom one day. “It’s sad but sweet that he’s been telling me for years that he wants a brother and a stepmom,” he admitted. “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.”

Ryan and Rivera began dating in 2010 and were in an on-again-off-again relationship. They tied the knot in 2014 and welcomed Josie into the world in 2015. The pair eventually divorced in 2018.