Naya Rivera played a pivotal part in ‘Glee’, the hit musical comedy-drama television series that ran from 2009 to 2015. Through 113 episodes, Naya played ‘Santana Lopez’, being one of the earliest representations of both Latina women and the LGBTQ+ community in her role. She won multiple awards for her role in the series and quickly became a fan favourite as her characters story arch progressed. As a result, the news that the talented young star had passed away in a tragic accident was equal parts shocking and heartbreaking. As tributes poured in for Naya, her colleagues at ‘Glee’, with whom she spent a better part of her career, took to social media to share their grief. At the time, the show’s creators – Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, Ian Brennan – had promised to start up a college fund for Josey, Naya’s young son. Unfortunately, it seems as if this promise was not acted upon, more than eight months since her passing.
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The revelations came when George Rivera retweeted a tweet from a user who expressed admiration for the trio of creators credited to the hit series who, a little after Naya passed, publicly announced their plans to set up a college fund for the actresses only son, Josey. After retweeting this, Papa Rivera pinpointed Murphy and followed up with:
His tweet suggests that, despite their earlier claims, nothing has been done to make good on their promise to set up the fund. Rivera went on to accuse Murphy of letting fame get to him, tweeting “When you are part of the Hollywood elite, some people treat others as they are ‘less than’ …. vocalize a good game , but it’s as shallow as the sets on stage , that they create. Promises made in public, only to fade with time and excuses …. even in a unexplainable tragedy …”
And finally, responding to another Twitter user who called on him to be as honest as he wanted to be, he listed down all of the wrongs Murphy and the other creators had committed.
Now, following uproar over the revelation brought by Rivera’s tweets, a rep for Murphy has released a statement in response to the accusations. The statement claims that Murphy and the other Glee creators have been in contact with the actress’ estate to push forward with creating a college fund for Josey.
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Naya Rivera was confirmed to have passed away after going missing on July 8th – exactly seven years after the death of her friend and former Glee co-star, Cory Monteith – during a boating trip with her son. The young actress was only 33-years-old at the time. Following confirmation of her passing, Murphy, Falchuk, and Brennan addressed her loss in a joint statement:
“We are heartbroken over the loss of our friend Naya Rivera. Naya wasn’t a series regular when we cast her on Glee. She didn’t have more than a few lines in the pilot. But it didn’t take more than an episode or two for us to realize that we had lucked into finding one of the most talented, special stars we would ever have the pleasure of working with. She was a joy to write for, a joy to direct and a joy to be around. Naya was more than just an actor on our show – she was our friend.”
*Cover image credits: @nayarivera
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