The 'Smart Guy' actor reveals that talking about the 'Glee' alum's passing remains a hard thing for him, adding that respecting her family and their feelings are the most important thing.

• Jun 17, 2021

AceShowbiz - Tahj Mowry is reflecting on his relationship with Naya Rivera, whom he called his first love. As Naya's first death anniversary is approaching, the 34-year-old actor, who used to date the late actress, talked about how big impact that Naya gave in his life as she was his "first everything."

"She was definitely my first everything," Tahj shared during an interview with Glamour. "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."

Tahj revealed that talking about Naya's passing remains a hard thing for him, adding that respecting her family and their feelings are the most important thing for him. "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," he explained.

"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 went on to say.

Tahj and Naya first met when they were just kids on the '90s sitcom "Smart Guy". They started dating for four years in 2000.

Paying tribute to the "Glee" alum, who died on July 8, 2020 in accidental drowning during a boating trip with her son Josey, Tahj wrote on Instagram on July 11, 2020, when she hadn't been found, "We grew up together. We became adults together. We experienced so many firsts together. You were my first experience with everything; love, intimacy, heartbreak. We broke each others hearts and then mended them back together...more than once. I will never not think of you."

"No woman has ever measured up what you gave me or how you made me feel. I've never liked to admit it but I have never stopped loving you. A part of me always wished for the day where God would bring us back together to be what we dreamt we could have been," he added.