Tahj Mowry is reflecting on his relationship with his ex, Naya Rivera. In a new interview with Glamour, Mowry talked about the special connection he had with his first love, revealing that no one has measured up to the late actress.
“She was definitely my first everything. I think subconsciously it’s why I never really date like that because no one really ever… I know someday someone might, but it’s hard to measure up to the type of girl and woman she was,” Mowry told the magazine.
The 34-year-old actor admitted that Rivera’s death is still hard for him to talk about, sharing that respecting her family and their feelings are the most important thing for him when it comes to discussing their past relationship.
“Because to think about her mother and her ex-husband and her child and her sister and her brother…the height of what they went through is times a thousand. I almost feel like I can’t even talk about my feelings because they don’t even measure up to the pain that they went through and are still going through. But, yes, much love to her entire family — her brother, her sister, her child, and her ex-husband as well,” he added.
The pair first met as kids when Rivera guest starred on the ‘90s sitcom Smart Guy, but they reportedly didn’t become an item until 2000, afterwhich they dated for four years. Mowry confirmed their relationship in his touching tribute to her after Rivera went missing during a boating trip with her then-4-year-old son, Josey.
ET’s Deidre Behar spoke with Mowry last month, where he said he found peace knowing that the Glee star is in a better place.
“I’m good and she’s in a better place, and she’s chilling. You know what I mean? So that is where I can find the joy and the peace,” he told ET.
Mowry hopes others will remember Rivera for the amazing mother she became.
“I think overall the amazing mother that she became and the working mother that she became. I think she’s the spitting image of what women are capable of doing just as capable as men are,” Mowry shared. “She was so strong, she was hilarious, oh my God, and so talented, so talented. Her voice always was the best I had ever heard.”
