Regina King Discusses Her Experience With Grief 2 Years After Losing Her Son Ian

Regina King opened up about her experience with grief two years after losing her son Ian Alexander, Jr.

The 53-year-old actress and director’s son died by suicide at the age of 26 in January 2022.

For the first time in public, she explained how she is honoring him and reflected on how her life has changed in an interview on Good Morning America this week.

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“I’m a different person now than I was,” Regina said, describing grief as “a journey” and as “love that has no place to go.”

Her goal is to “honor Ian in the totality of who he is” by speaking of him “in the present,” explaining that “he’s always with me.”

“When it comes to depression, people expect it to look a certain way, and they expect it to look heavy,” she said, acknowledging that it was not always that way. Regina that that she “respect[ed] and [understood]” her son’s choice. “That he didn’t wanna be here anymore. That’s a hard thing for other people to receive because they did not live our experience, did not live Ian‘s journey.”

She explained, saying, “My favorite thing about myself is being Ian‘s mom. And I can’t say that with a smile, with tears, with all of the emotion that comes with that — I can’t do that if I did not respect the journey.”

“I know that I share this grief with everyone. But no one else is Ian‘s mom, you know? Only me. And so it’s mine. And the sadness will never go away. It’ll always be with me. And I think I saw somewhere, the sadness is a reminder of how much he means to me, you know,” she said.

Regina explained that her wardrobe at the 2024 Oscars this month was a way to honor Ian. She wore orange, which was his favorite color.

Our thoughts go out to Regina and we continue to send her all the love.