Ryan Dorsey Says Son Josey Was ‘Welling Up’ Watching Late Mom Naya Rivera in Glee Concert Movie

In a new interview with PEOPLE, Dorsey said Josey teared up watching his mom in 2011’s Glee: The 3D Concert Movie.

“He sat there and he watched the whole movie, and you could see his eyes welling up a little bit,” Dorsey told the outlet. “He’s a strong boy, and he has a lot of content and episodes. His mom will live forever. I think that’s a silver lining of this terrible situation.”

Dorsey and Rivera, who was best known for her role as Santana Lopez on Glee, were married from 2014 to 2018. Two years after the actors divorced, Rivera died by drowning in July 2020.

Dorsey now raises Josey as a single parent and struggles to rewatch any of Rivera’s past roles himself.

“Pictures are hard enough,” Dorsey noted. “I can’t just sit there and watch her sing. It’s hard for me. So many songs make me think about her, like Amy Winehouse‘s ‘Valerie,’ which she sang on Glee, and ‘Sunflower’ by [Post Malone and Swae Lee] because I always used to get her sunflowers on Sundays. I can just see Josey in the back seat bobbing his head and singing that song.”

He continued, “Sometimes they’re happy reminders but a lot of times, even if it’s happy, the reality is it’s a lot of what could’ve been, what should’ve been. A lot of second-guessing everything and wondering how things might have played out if the tiniest decision we make really changes the course of events of life.”

As for one of the ways he and his son keep Rivera’s memory alive, Dorsey said he’s made a book of memories for the nine-year-old that the keeps by his bed, and can look at whenever he’s missing his mom.

“We made this book of memories for Josey that sits by his bed, and during the holidays he was crying looking at it,” Dorsey recalled. “You can only give him a hug and tell him, ‘I know, life is not fair. Bad things happen and there’s no reason for it, and you just have to do your best to be a good person.’ It’s hard trying to explain things that you can’t really make sense of no matter what age you are.”

Another thing Dorsey does in an effort “to do good by” his ex-wife, is throw “great birthday parties” for Josey.

“I’ll never be able to do it the way she would do things, but I think I’ve done a decent job for a couple,” he said. “For number 10 [in September] I’m going to throw a blowout. I hope to make her proud by throwing parties like she used to throw for him as he gets older.”