How Regina King Is Continuing to Create Memories With Son Ian, Who Made Every Moment ‘Special’ (Exclusive) originally appeared on Parade.
It’s been more than three years since Regina King’s son Ian Alexander Jr. died by suicide in January 2022 shortly after his 26th birthday. But the Academy Award-winning actress speaks of her child in the present tense as she gushes over his talent, generosity, charm, warm spirit and kind soul.
“No one makes me laugh as hard as Ian,” the If Beale Street Could Talk star exclusively tells Parade. “In a lot of ways, we grew up together.”
King was 25 when she welcomed Ian with ex-husband Ian Alexander Sr. in 1996, and she explains a lot of her life was shaped by her son’s presence. “I believe that your children’s spirit chooses their parents, so I guess I was supposed to be a young mom,” says King, now 54, as she sits down with Parade in the lobby of the Hotel Jerome in Aspen during the Food & Wine Classic in June.
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Ian introduced King to so many things, she says. In fact, her new business venture — MianU, an orange wine — is inspired by an evening they shared together over dinner. It’s King’s first foray into wine-making and a risk that she’s both nervous and excited by. After all, she says, “This is my baby. I want to protect it.”
The actress never intended to go into the business of making wine, she says, but sees this project as a way to keep Ian’s spirit alive and relive the moment he encouraged her to order a glass of orange wine for the first time. (Orange is his favorite color.)
“It [came from] this place of trying to find a way to create new memories with Ian,” she explains. “Talking to friends, their kids are growing up and doing new things. And I don’t have new memories, so instead of being in the sea of woe, [I decided] that doesn’t necessarily have to be. It’s just embracing this new relationship with Ian and how to create new memories that are maybe not the way I had imagined memories for the rest of my life with Ian would go.”
MianU, the wine’s label, is a tribute to Ian in more ways than one. Not only does his name live in the middle between “me” and “you,” but the script on the bottle is essentially written in Ian’s own hand.
“I have all of Ian’s journals. And when I’m kind of in a meditative space of connecting with him, I’ll sometimes read. I savor the moments because I don’t want to ever finish reading his journals,” King explains, teary-eyed. “One day I’m reading, and he just had an ‘M’ drawn in there so beautifully. It kind of looks like a music note on one end.” (Before his death, Ian was a musician and a DJ.)
King sent the drawing to her manager, whose artist brother worked on album covers including Thriller and Fleetwood Mac. “When he told me that,” she says, “I literally felt Ian say, ‘F–k yeah! That’s who’s doing our label.’ It is something that I know he’d brag about.”
The actress has previously opened up about Ian’s depression but explains again how she was getting him help before his death. “Ian and I, we talk so much,” she tells Parade. “And, you know, from going to all the therapists and psychiatrists, he never presented that [side of him, but] we would see it. We would talk about it. His father, me, some of his friends. So those very, very, very close [to him] were aware of Ian’s depression and how long he struggled with it.”
Ian, King says, “lives with joy” and “doesn’t want his weight to be your weight,” so he “always wants to create a special moment, even in the simplest moments.”
She explains, “When he’s talking to you, looking at you, it may seem like, ‘Oh, he’s getting over this depression.’ That’s not the case.”
Watching Ian deal with the ups and downs was difficult, King says. “[Those struggling] don’t want you to feel like them,” she says. “Those are the things I’m starting to understand now. It’s hard watching your son go through those bouts of just low. And you’re doing all of the things [you can to help], but you have to accept that they don’t want to be here anymore.”
Though King has spent over two years working on her new wine, tasting different grapes to find the perfect blend of Gewürztraminer and Chardonnay (in partnership with McFadden Farm and Hawkeye Ranch in Mendocino County), the venture brings forth mixed emotions. “I’ll have these ‘Oh my God, Ian look!’ moments, and then I’ll have an undercurrent of sadness, you know, but that sadness in a lot of ways just lets me know how much I love him.”
Before launching the label, King had an experience she believes was Ian giving his blessing — when she was experimenting with pairing various dishes with the wine at a restaurant in Sonoma.
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“The last thing you want is just a wine that’s only good to sip with nuts or cheese and charcuterie,” she says.
While there, she saw a group of nuns and was tempted to offer them a sample. “I chickened out,” she admits. But King’s longtime friend went ahead and asked them to have a taste — and they loved it. “I had literally found the blend,” says King. “This was it.”
Sharing MianU with a select few at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen gave King a new memory with Ian that she can cherish — and perhaps inspiration for the future. “When we were at the table, I collected the corks because I’m keeping them,” she says. “One day, Ian is gonna bring another idea of what we’re gonna do with all of these corks.”
Follow MianU on Instagram at @mianuwines.
If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide or struggling with suicidal thoughts, help is available 24 hours a day through the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.
How Regina King Is Continuing to Create Memories With Son Ian, Who Made Every Moment ‘Special’ (Exclusive) first appeared on Parade on Aug 6, 2025
This story was originally reported by Parade on Aug 6, 2025, where it first appeared.
