Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s mother Pamela has shared new details about her son’s tragic death, revealing he was in waist-deep water when he got into trouble.
The 54-year-old The Cosby Show star was on holiday in Costa Rica with his wife Tenisha and their daughter eight-year-old daughter in July when tragedy struck.
“His wife and daughter had been in Costa Rica three weeks prior,” Pamela said on Good Morning America.
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“She is homeschooled, and this was part of an immersion program.”
Pamela said her granddaughter wasn’t in the water with her father at the time. Instead, Malcolm-Jamal was in the water with another man who was a more experienced swimmer.
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“They were in the water, I think maybe chest deep, even at that — maybe waist deep. There was an undertow, and my son was not an experienced swimmer. He did not know how to offer 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.”
When Pamela was told about her son’s death she said she let out a scream “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.”
She eventually came to accept that it was her son’s time to go. Pamela said her son’s wife and child are “both in deep grief”.
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“Children process differently. She watched them try to resuscitate him, so she saw that, and I know that’s awfully, awfully traumatic.
“She loved her father dearly. She adored papa — he was papa.”
Tenisha shared a social media post this week to mark their upcoming wedding anniversary, announcing the launch of The Warner Family Foundation in honour of her late husband.
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”Today, in his honor ,my daughter and I are launching River & Ember and officially opening The Warner Family Foundation,” she wrote.
“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.”
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,” the website explains.
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