The widow of Malcolm-Jamal Warner has broken her silence on live television as she pursues a lawsuit against the actor’s mother over their family trust.
On Wednesday (July 22), CBS Mornings shared a preview clip of a conversation between Tenisha Warner and news anchor Gayle King in time for the one-year anniversary of the actor's death. The full interview is set to air on Thursday (July 23). Also this week, Tenisha filed a $1.2 million lawsuit in Dekalb County against Malcolm-Jamal Warner's mother, Pamela Warner, in her capacity as successor trustee of the family trust. With Tenisha, Warner had one child, a daughter, who’s now 9 years old and was rescued by the former Cosby Show actor before he drowned at 54 years old in Costa Rica last July.
In the clip above, Tenisha confirmed that she and her mother-in-law were not close but spoke candidly about the emotional weight of the past year. "Right now, everybody, like all of his family members and, who have lost him, they are grieving. It's been the biggest loss for all of us," she said.
Tenisha also addressed the demands of single motherhood. "The emotional capacity that I have can be very limited sometimes, you know?” she admitted. “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."
In a public statement, Tenisha explained the lawsuit was for financial reasons. "I have been struggling to care for our daughter as a single mom and now as her sole provider. Legally, I had no choice but to take action to protect our rights before any potential statute of limitations expired," she said.
Tenisha added that her late husband had “every intention” to ensure that she and their daughter were financially covered, noting the 1996 trust was created when he was 26 years old, two decades before the couple met. She said he was close to replacing it before his death.
The lawsuit's financial claims stem in part from an agreement the couple signed in May 2022. Under that agreement, Malcolm-Jamal Warner allegedly committed to securing a $1 million term life insurance policy with Tenisha as a sole beneficiary — a policy he never obtained, per People. The remaining claims cover $50,542.46 in anniversary payments, a $30,500 Roth IRA, and $195,000 in unpaid salary for her work as his chief of staff. Tenisha also seeks interest, attorney's fees, and an injunction preventing Pamela from distributing trust assets while the case proceeds.
Pamela also memorialized her son with an Instagram post that showed the actor as a child but also a message about how “cruel, evil and greedy a human can be,” which some believed was subliminal about Tenisha.
