Oscar- and multiple Emmy-winning actor Regina King spoke out today about her son’s 2022 death by suicide, telling Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts “grief is love that has no place to go.”
King’s 26-year-old son Ian Alexander Jr. died in January 2022.
“Grief is a journey,” King said, adding “I know that it’s important to me to honor Ian in the totality of who he is, speak about him in the present, because he is always with me and the joy and happiness that he gave all of us.”
Watch the interview above.
King continued, “When it comes to depression, people expect it to look a certain way, they expect it to look heavy. To have to experience this and not be able to have the time to just sit with Ian’s choice, which I respect and understand. He didn’t want to be here anymore, and that’s a hard thing for other people to receive because they did not live our experience, did not live Ian’s journey.”
King, who won an Oscar in 2019 for If Beale Street Could Talk, told Roberts that after years of therapy, son Ian told her, “I’m tired of talking, Mom.”
“Sometimes, a lot of guilt comes over me,” King said. “When a parent loses a child, you still wonder, What could I have done so that wouldn’t have happened? I know that I share this grief with everyone, but no one else is Ian’s mom, you know? Only me, so it’s mine, and the sadness will never go away. It will always be with me.”
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988