Naya Rivera's son (9)

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Naya Rivera drowned in tragic circumstances.

(Bild: Photo Press Service)

 "Glee" star Naya Rivera died in July 2020 while out on a rented boat with her son Josey in Lake Piru, California. Now new, harrowing details of her last minutes have emerged.

Her son's father, Ryan Dorsey, now says that Josey still feels guilty for not being able to help his mother out of the water.

Four-year-old couldn't save her
Speaking to People magazine, the 41-year-old revealed: "He kept saying he was trying to find a lifeboat and there was a rope, but there was a big spider on the rope and he was too scared to throw it." He kept having to reassure him, he said, "Mate, the rope wouldn't have been long enough."

Josey was only four years old at the time. "He said the last thing she said was his name and then she went under and he never saw her again. It devastates me that he had to witness her last moments," confesses Ryan.

Father only wanted to be with his son
He himself received the tragic news when he went to the supermarket to buy food for a friend's barbecue, after which he immediately drove over 200 kilometers to the lake. "I collapsed into a pallet of drinks. I feared the worst. I was driving with my hazard lights on the whole time, smoking cigarettes - I don't actually smoke - and just crying. I just wanted to get to Josey," he recalls.

The actor admits: "If we had lost both Naya and Josey, I don't know how I would have gone on with my life. I don't know what I would have done, but I'm sure it wouldn't have been anything good."