Five Years After Her Loss Life Without Naya

The 2020 death of Glee’s Naya Rivera left her little boy without a mom. Her ex, Ryan Dorsey, stepped in and now tells Us exclusively about their ‘curious and creative’ son

- MARIEL TURNER

In her 2016 memoir, Sorry Not Sorry, Rivera called Josey the best part of my story; left: Dorsey and Rivera at a December 2015 event.

Five years after actress Naya Rivera's accidental death, it’s both heartwarming and heartbreaking to learn that her 9-year-old son, Josey, is following in the Glee star's footsteps. “He's been playing piano for a year, and it’s been awesome to watch him go from poking around on one finger to playing with two hands,” dad Ryan Dorsey (Rivera's ex-husband) shares with Us. “And he’s starting to really hit the notes when he’s singing.”

Last fall, Josey starred in a kids’ theater production of Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka in Charleston, West Virginia, where he’s been living with his father, an actor who has appeared on Justified, Yellowstone and, most recently, Tracker. Dorsey, 41, adds, “He said to me the other day, ‘Dad, I think I might want to be a musician. My mom is a singer, so why not me?’ I just thought that was a beautiful thing.”

A Tragic Day

On July 8, 2020, Rivera had planned an afternoon of barbecue and swimming with Josey, then 4, at Lake Piru, a Southern California reservoir she'd been visiting for years. Rivera, 33, rented a pontoon boat — on which Josey was found sleeping alone around 5 p.m. His mother was missing.