Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s widow is speaking out after his death.
Tenisha Warner, who married the Cosby Show star in 2017, identified herself publicly for the first time on Friday.
She memorialized her late husband, who died in July in an accidental drowning in Costa Rica at the age of 54, in an Instagram post from a new account, where she shared a photo from the couple’s wedding and announced a new foundation in his honor.
“Thank you for holding us in so much love during this tender time,” his wife began. “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.”
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Warner went on to share poetic reflections on the actor’s brightest qualities. “I can still hear my husband’s laugh, still feel the way he made room for every part of me — every tear, every dream,” she wrote.
The late star’s wife then explained that she and her daughter, Ember, are launching the Warner Family Foundation in his honor.
“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,” she wrote.
Warner concluded, “This is love. Still moving. Still making. Still carrying us forward.”
Malcom-Jamal Warner died as a result of accidental “asphyxia by submersion” after he “entered the sea and was apparently swept away by a current,” reported the Costa Rican Judicial Investigation Agency.
The actor’s death inspired a number of tributes from his peers and admirers.
Keshia Knight Pulliam, who played Warner’s younger sister on The Cosby Show, posted a video of her former costar on social media. “A week ago I lost my big brother, but I gained an angel,” she wrote in her caption. “I love you… I miss you… We got our girls.”
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Bill Cosby, who played Warner’s onscreen dad for eight seasons of The Cosby Show, shared his memories of the late actor with ABC News. “He was always a great studier, and I enjoyed working with him very much,” Cosby said. “He was very professional. He always knew his part…. He always knew his lines, and he always knew where to go.”
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Family Matters star Jaleel White, who counted Warner among his friends and role models, honored the late actor in an interview with Extra. “I grew up looking up to him. He was ahead of me in the game,” White said. “Malcolm was the first former child actor that my mother even let me go out with late at night past 11 p.m., and I had a very close relationship with both him and Michelle Thomas. May they both rest in peace.”
Beyoncé also memorialized Warner by adding a tribute to him to her website. “Rest in power, Malcolm-Jamal Warner,” the site read below an image of the actor. “Thanks for being a big part of our shared television history. You will be missed.”
In addition to his time on The Cosby Show, Warner appeared on shows like Suits, American Crime Story, The Resident, Accused, and 9-1-1. He also sometimes worked as a director, helming episodes of shows like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, All That, and Kenan & Kel. He also won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional R&B Performance for contributing a poem to a cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Jesus Children of America” in 2015.
