NEWSRegina King's Son Ian Dead By Suicide At 26
Regina King's son, Ian Alexander Jr., has died by suicide at 26-years-old.
The If Beale Street Could Talk actress confirmed the tragic news in a statement to People.
“Our family is devastated at the deepest level by the loss of Ian,” King's words read. “He is such a bright light who cared so deeply about the happiness of others. Our family asks for respectful consideration during this private time. Thank you.”
Alexander Jr. was the Watchmen star's only child, shared with ex-husband, Ian Alexander Sr., who she was married to from 1997 to 2007. The young musician's death came only a few days after his 26th birthday.
Prior to his passing, Alexander Jr. worked as a DJ under the stage name "Desdune". His final social media post was an excited message to fans that his music career was about to "blowup".
"Its been a minute but now we back at the jump off. Don’t you want to say you supported desduné before the blowup??" he wrote on Instagram on Wednesday, January 19. "So pullup this month!! performing live at Bardot on the 28th for @breakingsoundla Save a buck and buy tickets in advance at the link in my bio."
King shared a close bond with her son. She told Essence in 2011 that she gets "emotional" because he is "such an amazing young man".
The Academy Award winner often talked about the unconditional love shared between them — so much so, they decided to get a matching tattoo of the symbol.
"He said, let's choose three [designs] each and not tell each other which ones they are and whichever one is matching, that's the one we're going to get tattooed," she recalled during an interview with The View. "And we both chose unconditional love."
The praise didn't just go one way. Alexander Jr. took every opportunity to gush about his talented and hard working mom.
“She’s just a super mom, really,” he told E! News of their relationship at the time. “She doesn’t really let bad workdays or anything come back and ruin the time that we have, so it’s really awesome to have a mother that…I can enjoy spending time with and all that.”
