Naya Rivera’s Ex Ryan Dorsey Details Moment He Learned of Her Death

Ryan Dorsey is reflecting on the most heartbreaking period of his life.

For the first time in the almost five years since his ex-wife Naya Rivera—with whom Ryan shared son Josey, now 9—drowned in a tragic accident, Ryan is opening up about the heartbreaking moment he received a call from the husband of Naya’s mother and learned she was missing.

“I instantly said, ‘What do you mean? She knows how to swim,’” he recalled to People in an interview published Feb. 12, noting he was at a grocery store at the time. “He said, ‘They jumped in, and Josey got back on, and they’re trying to find Naya.’ I collapsed into a pallet of drinks. I didn’t know what to think, but I feared the worst.”

Ryan said he immediately got into his car and drove the 145 miles to Lake Piru, where Naya had rented a pontoon boat for a day on the water with Josey.

“I drove 100-and-­something the whole way with my four-way hazards on, chain-smoking cigarettes,” he added. “And I don’t even smoke, really, and just crying. I just wanted to get to Josey.”

Ryan referred to the time it took a search and rescue team to locate Naya’s body “the worst five days” of his life.