Regina King opened up about how the death of her son Ian Alexander Jr. changed the way she lives her life.
“Now, I understand that sadness and happiness can be happening at the same time,” King told Haute Living Los Angeles in a cover story published on Wednesday. “I one thousand percent live in the moment more. I don’t know if that’s something that just comes with time, or with pain, or with the pandemic — probably all of it. But I feel it.”
King’s only child, whom she shared with ex-husband Ian Alexander Sr., died by suicide at the age of 26 in January 2022.
While speaking to the outlet, King explained how the orange wine she launched earlier this month, MianU, helps keep Alexander Jr.’s memory alive.
“His art, his creativity — it’s all in there. It was kind of an epiphany I had that came from a place of continuing to create memories in Ian’s spirit,” King said. “I’m surrounded by people talking about their children — engagements, weddings, new chapters. I still love talking about Ian: I just don’t have the chance to create new memories in the way they do. But I’m not focused on that. This is my way of creating something new, together.”
She added that she thinks of her son “every time” she pours a glass of the wine. “I’m thinking of him 24/7 anyway, but always in this moment, I can see his face,” King continued. “And for people who never got the chance to dance with Ian, maybe they’ll be curious. Maybe they’ll ask. His name is right there, in the middle of it all. He’ll never be forgotten. If you see me, you see Ian.”
King previously opened up about Alexander Jr.’s death during an interview with Good Morning America in March 2024.
“When it comes to depression, people expect it to look a certain way and they expect it to look heavy,” she said of Alexander Jr.’s struggles. “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, that he didn’t want to 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.”
After she admitted she was “angry with God,” King recalled wondering, “Why would that weight be given to Ian? Of all of the things that we had gone through with the therapy, with psychiatrists and programs — and Ian was like, ‘I’m tired of talking, Mom.’”
King went on to note that she was “a different person” than who she was before Alexander Jr. died. “Grief is a journey. I understand that grief is love that has no place to go,” she explained. “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.”