Earlier today (March 14), Regina King appeared on "Good Morning America" to promote her new movie, Shirley, a biographical drama about late politician Shirley Chisholm's storied presidential run. The film lands in select theaters on Friday (March 15) before a worldwide release on Netflix later this month.
During the interview, the actress opened up to Robin Roberts about her son, Ian Alexander Jr., who tragically took his own life back in January 2022. He was only 26 years old.
"I'm a different person now than I was [on the day of his death]," she said. "Grief is a journey. I understand that grief is love that has no place to go. I know that it's important to me to honor Ian in the totality of who he is [and] speak about him in the present because he's always with me."
King continued by touching on the realities of mental health and how what an individual is going through internally is perceived by others, including herself. "When it comes to depression, people expect it to look a certain way. They expect it to look heavy," she explained. "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 [and] did not live Ian's journey."
She continued, "I was so angry with God. Why would that weight be given to Ian? You know, all of the things that we had gone through -- therapy, psychiatrists, and programs -- Ian was just like, 'I'm tired of talking, Mom.' My favorite thing about myself is being Ian's mom, and I can't say that with a smile, with tears, with all of the emotion that comes with that... if I did not respect the journey."