When “Glee” actress Naya Rivera became pregnant with her ex-boyfriend’s baby, she didn’t tell him. Instead, she had an abortion.
Eventually, Rivera and Ryan Dorsey got back together and later married. In her newly published book “Sorry Not Sorry: Dreams, Mistakes, and Growing Up,” the 29-year-old actress described what happened when she finally told Dorsey about aborting their unborn child.
Rivera told The Real on Tuesday: “He said, you know, in the short time that we dated, I wish that I could have done something to make you feel like you could have trusted me with that information because I would have loved to have been there with you.’ And I was like, ‘God, that’s amazing. Thank you so much.’”
“… I think it was the kindest and the best thing that any man could have ever said in that situation. And it just made me love him that much more, so I’m thankful for that,” she continued.
Rivera, who played Santana Lopez on the TV show “Glee,” made her abortion story public a few weeks ago prior to the release of her book. Rivera had the abortion in 2010 while working on the show. At the time, she had just broken up with Dorsey. The two got back together and married in 2014. They now have an 11-month-old son.
When she had the abortion, the young actress said her mother drove her to a Planned Parenthood in Pasadena, California where she was given abortion pills. According to US, Rivera said she and her mom both wore disguises so they wouldn’t be recognized, and they paid cash so there would be “no paper trail.”
Though Rivera has defended her abortion, she also admitted that aborting her unborn child was extremely painful, both physically and emotionally. As is the case with so many women, Rivera said she has never really healed.
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“It was the worst experience of my life,” she wrote in her book. “It was incredibly painful — your body is basically in labor with strong, frequent contractions. I was nauseous and kept going in and out of consciousness because of the pain.”
Here’s more from US:
In the aftermath, she became addicted to MTV’s Teen Mom. “I was so jealous that they got to keep their kids,” writes Rivera, who eventually told Dorsey years later and only after he signed a confidentiality agreement. (They wed in July 2014.) “Watching it over and over was a way of punishing myself. ‘What’s wrong with you?’ I’d ask myself.”
The traumatic experience remains with her today. “I don’t think I ever emotionally healed from the abortion, which is why it is so mind-blowing that some people think having an abortion is the carefree girl’s No. 1 choice to keep on partying,” Rivera reveals. “In reality, it is anything but an easy choice. In some ways, I think choosing to have an abortion is almost harder than choosing to have your child, because you make that choice knowing, or at least suspecting, that many moments of your life will no be tinged with regret.”
It’s clear that her abortion was not the easy, quick fix that Planned Parenthood sells it as. In an interview with ET, Rivera said she “absolutely” still thinks about her abortion.
“Like I said, it’s something that is one of life’s little scars that you get along the way, and the scars are never really healed,” she told ET. “They are always kind of still there — they are just not bleeding anymore.”
Rivera has led a troubled life. In her memoirs, she described her struggles with self confidence, her acting career, her body image, anorexia, relationships and more.
“I’ve done a lot of living,” she told People. “I’m a 79-year-old trapped in a 29-year-old’s body.”
