Tenisha Warner, the widow of late actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner, sat down with Gayle King a year after the actor’s passing to detail how she and his daughter have adjusted to life after loss.
Amid a legal battle with the late actor’s mother, Warner decided it was finally time to share with the world intimate details of the private life she lived with Malcolm.
“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. “That post 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.”
Warner also spoke of the toll the actor’s untimely passing has had on everyone who loved him dearly.
“Right now, everybody, like all of his family members and, who have lost him, they are grieving,” she said. “You know, it’s been the biggest loss for all of us. The emotional capacity that I have can be very limited sometimes, you know? And so, I have to, for myself, decide, what do I have to give right now in this moment? And whatever I have to give, the first person to get that is my daughter. And then the second is myself.”
The interview, which was filmed prior to Warner’s lawsuit against her mother-in-law, Pamela, who managed all of Malcolm’s business affairs throughout his storied career, shed light on what life is now like for Tenisha and the couple’s 9-year-old daughter.
“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. But for us, we’re his wife and child, there’s no moving on. There’s not a moment in my day that I’m not affected.”
As BOSSIP previously reported, Tenisha has filed a lawsuit for $1.2 million against Malcolm’s mother, who is the successor trustee of his estate, claiming the late actor failed to fulfill details set forth in their premarital agreement. The widow alleges that Malcolm intended to take a $1 million life insurance policy out on himself to help secure his daughter’s future.
“For the last year, I have attempted to privately settle my beloved husband’s complicated estate and honor his last wishes. Malcolm had every intention to provide for our 9-year-old daughter and me,” she said in a statement via her spokesperson. “He was close to finalizing a new estate plan to replace the stale plan created in 1996 when he was 26 years old, 20 years before we met and well before we gave birth to our beautiful daughter. Sadly, He was unable to do so before we lost him.”
Malcolm’s mother has not made a public statement regarding Tenisha’s lawsuit; however, in her own death anniversary tribute she, seemingly, made mention of it.
“During my year-long journey, I have discovered how cruel, evil, and greedy a human can be,” she wrote. “I have also discovered the depth of love, care, concern, and support that humans are capable of.”
Sending well wishes to the Warner family.
