NEED TO KNOW
- Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s mother Pamela Warner opened up in an interview with Good Morning America about her son’s tragic death
- “They’re both in deep grief,” she said of her son’s widow Tenisha Warner and his 8-year-old daughter
- The Cosby Show star died in Costa Rica on July 21 after drowning. He was 54
Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s mother is revealing new details about her son’s tragic death.
Pamela Warner sat down with Good Morning America‘s Robin Roberts for her first interview since Malcolm-Jamal died on July 21 after drowning while on a trip in Costa Rica. He was 54.
Pamela revealed that The Cosby Show star was in Costa Rica because of his daughter’s schooling.
“His wife and daughter had been in Costa Rica three weeks prior,” Pamela told Roberts. “She is homeschooled, and this was part of an immersion program.”
Malcolm-Jamal had arrived during the third and final week, which was “for the husbands to come,” Pamela said, and was supposed to be “the fun part.”
Pamela confirmed that Malcolm-Jamal’s daughter was not in the water with him when he drowned, despite some reports that she was. “She was not in the water. He was with another gentleman,” Pamela said.
“They were in the water, I think maybe chest deep, even at that — maybe waist deep,” she explained. “There was an undertow, and my son was not an experienced swimmer. He did not know how to deal with an undertow.”
“The same [undertow] happened to the other gentleman, but he was a more experienced swimmer and he was able to rescue himself. But Malcolm was not.”
Roberts asked her about the moment she found out the news of his death, and noted that Pamela’s neighbors in her cul de sac heard her screams. “It was from the bottom of my soul. And what came up and what came out was huge, it was an indescribable pain that resonated throughout my body,” Pamela said.
In Pamela’s eyes, though, that is only the “physical part of it.”
“The spiritual part of it was — that was his time,” she said. “This is what I believe and what I feel.”
For Malcolm’s daughter, she’s still grappling with the loss.
“Children process differently. She watched them try to resuscitate him, so she saw that, and I know that’s awfully, awfully traumatic,” Pamela said of the 8-year-old. “She loved her father dearly. She adored papa — he was papa.”
She says his daughter and his wife, Tenisha Warner, are “both in deep grief.”
Pamela’s comments come days after the actor’s widow confirmed her identity for the first time after Malcolm kept his wife and daughter private during his life. Tenisha shared an Instagram post to launch the Warner Family Foundation and River & Ember with her daughter.
On Sept. 12, Tenisha shared a photo from her 2017 wedding to her late husband Malcolm-Jamal, and broke her silence on the loss.
“Thank you for holding us in so much love during this tender time,” she wrote. “Tomorrow marks our anniversary —and my heart is wide open. For the first time, I’m sharing a glimpse of the love that began it all. I can still hear my husband’s laugh, still feel the way he made room for every part of me — every tear, every dream. Together we carry the legacy my husband and I began — one that nurtures children’s inner light and gives young artists the freedom to create outside the lines.”
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The Warner Family Foundation will provide scholarships for young students seeking to pursue a higher education in the arts, and River & Ember will offer seasonal toolkits with art and other exercises designed for parents and their children to nurture “the child’s emotional rhythm, strengthening their nervous system, and inviting parents into moments of calm, presence, and deep connection,” per their official website.
This isn’t the first time Pamela spoke out following her son’s death.
On Aug. 6, Pamela started the “Malcolm-Jamal Warner Living Legacy” Instagram account. In her first post, she shared, “This is the official account honoring Malcolm-Jamal Warner, lovingly run by his mother, Pamela Warner.”
She remembered him as having “a huge heart for humanity” and for being an “exceptional husband, father, and son — a man deeply in love with life, his wife, and his daughter.”
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