We’re all still mourning the tragic loss of Cameron Boyce. The Disney Channel actor passed away after suffering a seizure in his sleep on July 6, 2019. He was only 20 years old at the time, and the entire world — including his fans, family, friends, costars and other celebrities — were heartbroken over the devastating loss. Now, his parents are opening up about how they’re coping with his sad passing and who their son truly was.
“The night he passed away, we were out to dinner with him just hours before. It was a completely normal, beautiful family night out to dinner,” his dad, Victor, recalled on Good Morning America. “There was no indication that anything was wrong. I mean there was no way to know in hours my son would be dead. Like, it was just staggeringly crazy and horrible. And we were texting that night. We were texting back and forth up until 12:30 and somewhere between the last text he sent me and the morning, he was gone.”
As fans know, the Descendants star unfortunately suffered from a disease called epilepsy.
“Cameron had his first seizure at 16 [years old],” his mom, Libby, explained. “He only ever had five seizures, and the fifth one is the one that he died from. If I ever thought that he could die from a seizure I would have never let him out of my sight.”
But his mom added that he never let the disease define him.
“He wasn’t scared. He never complained about anything,” Victor said.
“He loved life. This is, for me, the hardest thing. He was in a place where he was truly happy. I mean, Cameron was always happy. Never a negative thing came out of his mouth. Never,” Libby continued. “But he was just really finding his groove. He was really getting into the charity stuff, really getting into what he wanted to do with his voice, which is what we always told him to do, ‘Use your voice. Use it to make positive in the world,’ and that’s what he was starting to do.”
Before his death, Cameron was involved in numerous charities. And his parents are making sure they keep his legacy alive. They started a foundation in his honor, called The Cameron Boyce Foundation, which “provides young people artistic and creative outlets as alternatives to violence and negativity and uses resources and philanthropy for positive change in the world.”
Victor and Libby announced on the show that the foundation’s first program, called Wielding Place, is launching on August 16. It’s a social media campaign aiming to end gun violence, and is something that Cameron was working on prior to his death.
“I could never fill my sons shoes, ever. But we’re going to try to continue his legacy as best we can. It’s just too important to let it die. His legacy is important to us because we don’t want him to be remembered as just an actor or some Disney kid. Because he was so much more than that,” his father said. “He wanted to be known as his own person, you know, individually and not cookie-cutter.”
“Holidays and events, when he would walk in, it would just light up the room and the party would start. He was amazing. He was extremely wise, extremely thoughtful, incredibly athletic — a dancer from the minute he was born — and just the kindest, sweetest human you could possibly meet ever,” his mom continued. “And so that’s just an important message that, you know, as an actor, that was just a small piece of who he was. That’s what gave him some fame, but as a human, he was all about, you know, not being cookie cutter, and about creativity and about joy and no labels. He was just a human being.”
RIP Cameron, you will never be forgotten.
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