Ryan Dorsey penned a touching message to his late ex-wife, Naya Rivera, on what would have been her 36th birthday.
“🎂 IIIVI 🎂,” the “Ray Donovan” actor, 39, captioned a carousel of pictures on Instagram Thursday of the “Glee” alum with their son, Josey.
“A little easier with each little bit of time that passes by to look at pictures…but I still don’t have the answers to the questions to the why’s our sweet boy asks from time to time. I never will. Doing the best we can.”
Dorsey told Rivera to “Fly high” before sending an encouraging message to his followers.
“If you’re reading this no matter what you’re going through, take a moment of gratitude that you’re still here on this ride,” he wrote. “I know some days are harder than others to get up, but keep we just gotta keep pushing onward.”
The “Big Sky” star’s heartfelt post comes nearly three years after Rivera drowned while on a boating outing with their son. She was 33 years old.
The actress had been reported missing on July 8, 2020, after Josey, who was 4 years old at the time, was found alone on a boat on Southern California’s Lake Piru.
Authorities looked for Rivera for days, but the search came to a tragic end on July 13 when her body was discovered and she was confirmed dead.
Four months later, Dorsey filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of his son against Ventura County and Lake Piru’s management.
The suit alleged that Rivera’s death was preventable and that the boat she and Josey rented that day did not comply with Coast Guard safety standards by not having flotation devices, which are required by law in California.
In March 2022, an attorney for Rivera’s estate announced that the family had settled the lawsuit.
“Through this settlement, Josey will receive just compensation for having to endure the drowning of his beloved mother at Lake Piru,” the lawyer, Amjad M. Khan, said in a statement at the time.
Dorsey and Rivera were married from 2014 to 2018. He now takes care of 7-year-old Josey with the help of his former spouse’s younger sister, Nickayla Rivera.
