The Truth About Naya Rivera's Ex-Husband, Ryan Dorsey
By now all Glee fans must have heard the devastating news of Naya Rivera's disappearance after a boating accident on Wednesday, July 8. The Ventura County Sheriff's Department has since confirmed that the body of Rivera, 33, has been recovered, as reported by People on July 13. "We are confident the body we found is that of Naya Rivera," Ventura County Sheriff Bill Ayub said at a news conference. "It has been an extremely difficult time for her family throughout this ordeal ... our hearts are with them and we share in their grief for Naya's loss."
In the midst of this tragedy, there is one bright spot in that Rivera's beloved son, 4-year-old Josey Hollis Dorsey, survived the tragedy without incident as he was found on the boat alive and uninjured. Josey is the only child of Rivera and her ex-husband Ryan Dorsey, and the Daily Mail reports that as of Friday, July 10, father and son have been reunited. So who, exactly, is Ryan Dorsey, besides being the man who was once married to Naya Rivera and fathered Josey?
All about Ryan Dorsey
Us Weekly reports that according to Dorsey's own website, he described himself at one time as "the kid from the coal mining valley of West Virginia [who] had dreams of being a baseball player but high school fate derailed those plans and landed him on the stage, where he fell in love with a new dream."
After a pit stop at The New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts, Dorsey was able to launch a fairly successful acting career. According to IMDb, the 36-year-old has 35 credits to date, although he's hardly a household name. Among the shows he has appeared in are Stumptown, Yellowstone, Bosch, Ray Donovan, and The Vampire Diaries. His first two major acting credits were small parts on Southland and Parks and Rec in 2013 — not a bad way to kick off a career. He also has one production credit for Heavy Doom, a horror-themed show still in the pre-production phase in which he'll also be playing a starring role.
Ryan Dorsey and Naya Rivera were together long before they married
Rivera and Dorsey may not have married until 2014, but they first met in 2010 and dated for a time before breaking it off. As Dorsey's dad told the Daily Mail of their initial meeting, "I knew she met him at some kind of a party, she saw him across a dance club and she went to talk to him... He was a playboy, he didn't want to settle down, he wanted to concentrate on his work. But they remained friends and I guess they hooked up after the engagement from Big Sean was dropped."
A few weeks after they broke up, Rivera found she was pregnant. She revealed to People and also shared in her autobiography Sorry Not Sorry that she never even informed Dorsey about this pregnancy. Instead, on a day off from filming Glee, she arranged to have it terminated as at the time she felt she needed to focus on her career and didn't have the time to be starting a family. She admitted that she was nervous about finally coming out with this information seeing as how the whole issue of abortion is so emotional and controversial. As she told People: "It was very scary to open up about everything. It's not something a lot of people talk about, but I think they should. I know some people might read it and say, 'What the Hell?' But I hope someone out there gets something out of it."
Inside Ryan Dorsey and Naya Rivera's rocky relationship
After reuniting in 2014, the couple married in Cabo San Lucas later that year (via The Sun). Their wedding date, July 19, was not only Dorsey's 31st birthday, but was also the date on which Rivera had originally planned to marry Big Sean before the rapper called off their wedding (via the Daily Mail).
While Dorsey and Rivera did welcome a child together a year after they wed in September 2015, their relationship ultimately wasn't a happy one. By 2016 they were already planning to split up, although they didn't go through with a divorce at that time. After dating David Spade earlier in the year, the actress reconciled with her husband in mid-2017, but by the end of that year things got ugly again and The Sun reports that Rivera was charged with domestic battery in a West Virginia courtroom after allegedly hitting Dorsey in the head. While the charges against her were dropped by Dorsey, the couple divorced in 2018, but continued to share custody of son Josey.