One year after the death of actor and director Malcolm-Jamal Warner, his widow, Tenisha Warner, reflected on what she calls the worst day of her life, saying it’s difficult to relive.
“All I could think about was my daughter and what I needed to do to continue to be her mother and be her only parent,” Warner told “CBS Mornings” in an exclusive interview.
Malcolm-Jamal Warner, his wife and their daughter, who was 8 at the time, were vacationing in Costa Rica last summer when “The Cosby Show” actor drowned at the age of 54. Tenisha Warner said his death “feels unfair,” adding that she “can’t remember the details” of that day or recall where she was at the time.
“I think … my body went through shock.”
Breaking her silence
Warner initially remained private after her husband’s tragic death but decided to speak out about her grief and post to social media last September.
“I realized that there was a world out there that he had touched in such powerful ways … that I wasn’t necessarily seeing because my grief was sacred to me and I needed to keep it mine,” she said.
Her social media posting “was to let the world know I’m here. I’m here and I’m experiencing the biggest loss of my life and just because I’m still behind here, with my silence and my grief on my own terms, doesn’t mean I don’t see you.”
“They were wowed by him”
Warner and her late husband got married in 2022 and largely kept their family life private. Warner recalled their love developing from a friendship to something more “three months, third date” in.
“I’ve never liked the spotlight, you know. And so that’s one of the things that he loved in me,” she said.
Warner recalled people meeting her husband and not being wowed by his fame, but being “wowed by him.”
“People would come up and it wasn’t like, oh, my goodness, you’re Malcolm. They’d be like, you have touched my life in such a big way. You have no idea,” she said.
Warner said she still feels his presence in their home and doesn’t think about moving.
“It hurts. I can’t be in my own home without feeling the loss, but I can’t walk away,” she said. “He is here with me, always.”
As she copes with her grief, Warner believes the most difficult part is that people move on.
“But for us, we’re his wife and child, there’s no moving on,” she said, adding that her husband will always be part of their everyday lives.
“There’s not a moment in my day that I’m not affected.”
Honoring her husband’s legacy
Warner, who has a doctorate in psychology, is honoring her husband’s legacy through “River and Ember.” It’s a storytelling kit with rituals that provide an emotional foundation for children and their parents.
“With the river being vulnerability and the ember being strength — and that’s really what my husband stood for,” she explained.
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