The Devastating Truth About Will Reeve's Childhood

Will Reeve may be a successful journalist who is a correspondent for ABC News and a former commentator for ESPN, but his journey has been anything but easy. As the son of famed actor Christopher Reeve, who was beloved for his iconic performance as Superman, Will's life was deeply impacted by Christopher's 1995 horse-riding accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down. Just a toddler at the time, the younger Reeve was raised by a father who couldn't move at all.

Despite lacking many typical father-son experiences, Will and Christopher made up in other areas. Christopher was a great father to Will as the two shared a love for sports and wildlife. But Will lost that companionship at age 11, when his father unexpectedly died in 2004. In a matter of months, Will went on to lose his grandmother, Helen Morosini, and mother, Dana Reeve, both of whom died from cancer-related complications. Orphaned, Will moved in with the neighbors', who raised him until he came of age.

Despite the challenges that came with his upbringing, Will never lacked love. "I never felt deprived of any fundamental experience because something that I learned just through my dad being there was that the greatest gift you can give a child — the greatest gift you can give anyone who means something to you in your life — is your presence," he said in a 2021 interview with Different & Able. Navigating his father's disability was challenging enough, but losing his entire support system at once made for a traumatic childhood.

Will Reeve lost not one but both parents as a child. Christopher Reeve died on October 10, 2004 from heart failure after undergoing treatment for an infection. Just 10 months later, Dana Reeve revealed she had been diagnosed with lung cancer. On March 6, 2006, she died at 44.  Within a year and five months, Will became an orphan. It was a blow that changed his life forever. Up until that point, the Reeves had been a united front. Together, they could conquer anything.

"They were very tight. They had to stick together from a very early point," Dana's sister, Deborah Huschle, told the Mirror in May 2006. Dana was Will's biggest source of security, holding down the fort on her own since Christopher's accident. Mother and son developed a deep bond. "I remember her singing to Will before he went to sleep until just a couple of years ago," she said.

Christopher and Dana's dedication to their son had a lasting impact. Will went on to become a successful sports journalist and activist. But there was a time when Will didn't think his life would turn out well. "You're at the lowest point of your life," he wrote in a 2018 letter to himself published on "CBS This Morning." He wished he could tell his young self that everything would be OK, precisely because of how bad things were. "There's nowhere to go but up, and that's exactly where you're headed," he penned.

Will Reeve didn't just lose his mom and dad between 2004 and 2006. Four months after Christopher Reeve's heartbreaking death and a year before Dana Reeve's passing, Will also lost his maternal grandmother. Helen Morosini died on February 10, 2005, from complications of ovarian cancer surgery. It was blow after blow for a young boy to endure. "My three favorite people I've ever encountered, three people who shaped me in, basically, every way," he said on the "Healing with David Kessler" podcast in June 2022.

He was in complete denial. "I wanted it all to stop," he said. Will wanted to be a regular teenager, one who didn't have to worry about what to do about his grief. He became more accepting of his circumstance over time and faced the pain head-on, but he isn't done grieving. Even though he thought he had healed at different points, he has learned grieving is a life-long process. "I'm going to be doing the work for the rest of my life ... there's no expiration date for grief," he told Kessler.

Will leaned on the loved ones he still had. One of them was his maternal grandfather, Charles Morosini, whom he had for another 12 years. In April 2018, Will also said goodbye to him. "I feel this small today. Rest easy, Bumpa. To paraphrase one of your favorites: you did it your way. And I'll be forever grateful for that. And you," he wrote on Instagram.

Dana Reeve knew her son would become an orphan, so she started planning for his future. Both Dana and Christopher Reeve had siblings who could have taken Will, but she decided he would fare better by staying where he was, surrounded by the friends and environment he cherished. "It was completely like Dana to want Will to be as comfortable and secure as possible. That was the kind of woman she was," journalist Roger Friedman, who knew the Reeves well, wrote in a 2006 Fox News article.

While they didn't have family in Bedford, New York, they had the Puccis, their next-door neighbors who might as well have been family. She asked them if Will, who was close with Ralph and Ann's son, Michael, could live with them after she died. They didn't hesitate. For the next several years, Will became another Pucci. In Will's eyes, his mother made the right decision for him. "They are the reason that I was able to emerge from the darkest period of my life relatively unscathed," he told Bedford & New Canaan Magazine in 2021.

Will remained close with the Puccis for life. In 2014, he took a trip to Japan with them, a snippet of which he shared on Instagram, seen above. The previous year, they also vacationed in Turks and Caicos together. "Da squad at Da Conch Shack," he captioned an Instagram post of him with Michael Pucci and his sister Nicole.

Will Reeve wasn't even 3-years-old yet when his father was injured. Christopher Reeve's paralysis made it impossible for him to engage with his youngest son in ways most fathers do. "We never got to do a lot of stereotypical father-son stuff —  no catch in the backyard, no birds and the bees, no driving lessons, no prom pictures, no college visits, no guy's dinners in New York City," Will wrote in a 2021 letter posted on "Good Morning America."

They also never got to see whales in the wild together, an animal that they both loved and the subject of Christopher's last film project before his accident: National Geographic's "Gray Whales with Christopher Reeve." Will carries his love for whales close to his heart, a passion that still connects him to his dad. "I saw whales in Alaska last night, up close, and felt dad was with me," he wrote.

Christopher did the best he could to give Will a regular childhood. Even though his condition meant he couldn't physically show his son how to do things, he could still guide him. In the "CBS This Morning" letter, Will reminded himself of what the two accomplished together despite his father's limitations. "You will always remember the good stuff. Dad in the driveway teaching you how to ride a bike just by telling you what to do, you trusting him so fully that you just do it," he penned.

Christopher Reeves went into cardiac arrest hours after attending Will Reeve's hockey game. Dana Reeve believed the actor had an adverse reaction to a drug he was using to treat an ulcer, although no autopsy was performed to confirm her hypothesis. But she is glad that Christopher spent his last hours celebrating his son's achievements. "He attended one of Will's hockey games, cheering as they won a huge victory, bursting with pride as Will was presented with the game puck for his outstanding playing that day," she wrote in a letter (via CNN).

They continued to bond over sports into the night, right up to the moment he fell into a coma. "He watched the Yankee game with Will," she continued. It is unsurprising that Christopher and Will spent their last minutes together watching sports. "If it involved a ball or a stick or a racket or a bat or a puck, we were either watching it or playing it or talking about it together," he told People in 2015.

His family's love of sports sparked in him a desire to work at ESPN at an early age. Unfortunately, they weren't around when he achieved his goal. But he knows they're proud of him. "When you get that call, you'll want to call them and tell them the great news and of course, you can't, but you know that they already know," he wrote in his letter to himself.