close
close

first Drop

Com TW NOw News 2024

Christopher Reeve’s son reveals dinner table rule his family had after his father’s accident
news

Christopher Reeve’s son reveals dinner table rule his family had after his father’s accident

Christopher Reeve’s children still remember their family sitting at the dinner table together.

On Monday, September 16, Will Reeve appeared with his siblings Matthew and Alexandra on Good morning America to promote the documentary Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story.

The siblings recall their parents’ efforts to keep life at home as normal as possible after Christopher returned from the hospital in 1995 following an injury that left him paralyzed.

Will, who now works as a reporter for ABC News, said family dinners were still important, even though they weren’t allowed to discuss their father’s injuries.

“Whether it was good news, bad news or scary news, dinner was family time. ‘How was school?’ They sat at the head of the bed next to each other,” said Will, 32. “My mom fed him and herself. We had friends over. It was a very happy, robust, boisterous — everything you want a family dinner to be.”

“That was every night, and the only thing you weren’t allowed to talk about was specific medical stuff. It could be anything,” he added.

Matthew Reeve, Alexandra Reeve Givens and Will Reeve at the Variety Sundance Studio on January 20, 2024.

John Salangsang/Variety/Getty


Never miss a story: Sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories.

Christopher, who rose to fame in the 1970s and 1980s for his role as Superman on the big screen, died in 2004 at the age of 52. Will’s mother, Dana Reeve, was diagnosed with lung cancer and died in March 2006 at the age of 44, just 17 months after Christopher’s death. (Christopher had his two eldest children with his ex-partner Gae Exton.)

While thinking back to life with his family before his parents’ death, Will said on Good morning America that his mother often sang when she spent time in the house.

Matt Reeve, Alexandra Reeve Givens and Will Reeve on January 20, 2024.

Clayton Chase/IndieWire/Getty


“Always. While she’s making me my snack after school, while she’s putting me to bed, she’s always singing,” he said. “And I, when I was 10, 11 years old, I’d be like, ‘Mom, stop, it’s so annoying, I’m trying to watch the show. Why are you always singing? My friends’ moms don’t sing all the time,’ I’m only 11, right? And she’d be like, ‘Oh, okay, sorry,’ or she’d turn the volume up to tease me.”

“It’s easy to say in hindsight, but I wish I had asked her to sing more, because when I think about her, that’s where I go,” he added. “The moments were just—the quiet moments of safety and happiness and normalcy and togetherness. We didn’t have to be in the same room, but I knew where she was. I miss that.”

Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story can be seen in a number of theaters on September 21 and 25.