'When it comes to depression, people expect it to look a certain way’ - REGINA KING addresses her son’s suicide in emotional VIDEO


Thursday, March 14, 2024 – Actress, Regina King has addressed her son Ian Alexander Jr.’s death for the first time in two years.

In a clip for an upcoming interview with Good Morning America, the “If Beale Street Could Talk” star, 53, reflected on how her grief has been hard for her.

Ian died by suicide in January 2022 at the age of 26. He passed away on Jan. 21, just two days after his birthday.

“What have these last two years been like for you?” host Robin Roberts asked.

“Oh wow. I’m a different person now than I was Jan. 19,” the Oscar winner replied. “I am.”

She added that her new Netflix film “Shirley” out March 22 is dedicated to her late son.

“Grief is a journey,” she continued. “I understand that.”

“Grief is love that has no place to go,” she continued. “And that we all handle it differently. I know that it’s important to me to honour 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.”

“When it comes to depression, people expect it to look a certain way — they expect it to look heavy,” King said. “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.”

She added that she “was so angry with God” for the tragedy at one point.

“Why would that weight be given to Ian? Of all of the things that we had gone through — therapy, psychiatrists, programs — and Ian was like, ‘I’m tired of talking, Mom,’” she said about his mental health.

“Sometimes, a lot of guilt comes over me. 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,” King reflected.

She shared Ian with her ex-husband, record producer Ian Alexander Sr. They divorced in 2007 after a decade of marriage.

In June 2022, King made her first public appearance since the tragedy in Sicily.

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