Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s widow is breaking her silence on the “Cosby Show” actor’s death, nearly two months after he accidentally drowned during a vacation in Costa Rica. Malcolm-Jamal Warner was 54 years old and is survived by his daughter as well as his wife, Tenisha Warner.
“Thank you for holding us in so much love during this tender time,” she wrote on Friday on Instagram. “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,” Tenisha Warner said. “Today, in his honor, my daughter and I are launching River & Ember and officially opening The Warner Family Foundation.”
The foundation’s website explains that a “Creative Legacy Fund” named after the actor will provide scholarships for people ages 14 to 22 and start “nurturing the next generation of artists.” Malcolm-Jamal Warner was a poet and musician in addition to being an actor.
“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,” Tenisda Warner wrote Friday. “This is love, Still moving. Still making. Still carrying us forward.”
Tenisha Warner has been mostly out of the spotlight during her marriage, with numerous outlets describing her announcement Friday as a so-called “confirmation” of her identity. Malcolm-Jamal Warner never publicly shared her or their daughter’s name.
The late actor, who played Theodore Huxtable on “The Cosby Show” and landed a 1986 Emmy nod, was reportedly swimming at Playa Grande in Cahuita, a Costa Rican village, when a current swept him away. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Authorities have since confirmed that he died from accidental asphyxiation by submersion.
Jordan Strauss/Invision/Associated Press
Tenisha Warner shared in an official statement accompanying her post that River & Ember, described online as a “seasonal digital” toolkit for parents and young children, sprang from her knowledge “as a doctor of psychology” and her personal journey with grief.
“River & Ember began with two simple forces: the steady flow that carries us forward, and the quiet warmth that keeps us alive inside,” read the statement. “My husband embodied both. His presence was a river – steady, sure, and always moving toward what matters.”
The late actor’s mother wrote similarly about water when she broke her silence last month. Pamela Warner noted in a statement of her own at the time that her son was born “through the waters of my womb” — and “transitioned through water” one last time when he died.
