Will Reeve talks candidly about his painful, heartbreaking childhood and how he got through it all.

The Good Morning America host, whose father was the beloved Christopher Reevewas orphaned when he was only 13; his father died at the age of 52 in 2004, almost a decade after the horse riding accident that left him paralyzed, and less than two years later his wife died, Dana Reeve, died after a short battle with lung cancer, despite the fact that he had never smoked.

The couple married in 1992; the Superman actor is also survived by his eldest children, shared with ex-girlfriend Gae Exton, Matthew, 44, and Alexandra40.

Today, Will continues his father’s legacy with the release of a new documentary, Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Storywhich describes both his path to fame and the change in his life after the accident.

In addition to sharing clips from the upcoming documentary about Good morning America — he has been with ABC since 2018 — Will candidly told People what it was like to be orphaned at age 13.

“That’s when I realized I was completely alone,” he said in the documentary, though he later told media, “I moved in with our beloved neighbors, who were our best friends,” adding, “That was such an incredible, wonderful experience in almost 20 years.”

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His older half-siblings, who were around 21 and 25 when their father died, also served as parental figures. “Matthew and Al, always in my life, not just in the hard times, have been sources of so much strength and support and joy and love for me,” he said.

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“I mean, everybody came through it,” he continued, recalling, “I think it was an all-hands-on-deck situation. My maternal grandparents, Charles and Helen Morini, were incredibly indispensable. And we were fortunate to live in a close-knit community.”

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“We had large groups of friends, teachers, coaches, and people from the past and present who contributed in whatever way they could.”

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Will insisted: “It’s like they say, it takes a village. And the village responded to our situation in such a substantial and impactful way.”

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Still, reflecting on the tremendous loss, he also shared, “My mother was perhaps the most extraordinary person to ever walk this earth,” and that her “penchant for caring and showing compassion to everyone she encountered was innate to her. She didn’t have to wake up every day and decide to provide for our family. That was who she was.”

He finally reflected, “Grief is permanent. The people we love and lose are gone from this earth forever, but we carry their memories, their spirit, and their values ​​with us forever. And by focusing on the love we feel for those we’ve lost, we honor them. And that helps us heal.”