Malcolm-Jamal Warner's widow is opening up after the one-year anniversary of his death.
In an emotional interview on "CBS Mornings" aired Thursday, July 23, Tenisha Warner opened up about "The Cosby Show" actor nearly a year since his death at 54, when he drowned off the coast of Costa Rica.
Warner spoke to anchor Gayle King about their relationship and raising their 9-year-old daughter, MacKenzie, amid their grief. The interview occurred before Warner filed a lawsuit against the Emmy-nominated actor's mother, Pamela Warner, over his estate.
When King asked Warner, 48, whether she was in communication with the actor's mother, she simply responded that the family is "grieving."
"It's been the biggest loss for all of us," she said, tears in her eyes.
"The emotional capacity that I have can be very limited sometimes. And whatever I have to give, the first person to get that is my daughter, and then the second is myself."
Opening up about speaking for the first time following his death, marking their anniversary on Instagram in September, Warner said she had kept her grief "sacred," but realized "there was a world out there that he had touched in such powerful ways."
"I'm experiencing the biggest loss of my life," she continued. "And just because I'm still behind here with my silence and my grief on my own terms doesn't mean I don't see you."
The "Malcolm & Eddie" alum and Tenisha Warner met in 2015 and married in May 2022, five years after they welcomed MacKenzie, according to Warner's lawsuit.
The actor died during a family vacation after he was swept away by a current while swimming in the Caribbean Sea. Bystanders rescued him from the water and brought him to shore, but he was declared dead at the scene.
Malcolm-Jamal Warner's widow: 'My body went through shock' after his death
Warner said the day continues to haunt her. "The moments of that day, they occupy my body so deeply," she said, adding that she "can't remember the details" and that it's "hard for me to sort of relive" it. "My body went through shock."
She called Warner's death "unfair."
"I think the hardest thing about grief is that people, they move on," she continued. "But for us, because we're his wife and child, there's no moving on. There's moving with and living with. He will always be a part of our everyday," she said, before breaking down.
Warner went on to speak highly of her late husband and his impact.
"When people met him, they were not wowed by his fame. They were wowed by him," she told King. "People would come up and ... they'd be like, 'You have touched my life in such a big way. You have no idea.'"
Malcolm-Jamal Warner's widow sues his mother over estate
Tenisha Warner filed the lawsuit against Malcolm-Jamal Warner's mother on July 17. In a statement to USA TODAY on July 21, she said she had tried to solve the matter privately but is "struggling to care for our daughter as a single mom."
Under the Warner Family Trust established in 1996, 70% of Malcolm-Jamal Warner's assets were left to Pamela Warner, 15% to his late father, Robert Warner Jr., and 15% to his half-sister Collage, according to a legal petition Tenisha Warner filed. The widow said the fund was established before the actor met her and completely excludes any adequate financial support toward her and their daughter, adding, "This was not Malcolm's intent."
"Malcolm had every intention to provide for our nine-year-old daughter and me," she said, per the statement. "He was close to finalizing a new estate plan to replace the stale plan created in 1996 when he was 26 years old, 20 years before we met and well before we gave birth to our beautiful daughter. Sadly, he was unable to do so before we lost him."
She added, "Legally, I had no choice but to take action to protect our rights before any potential statute of limitations expired."
Contributing: Anthony Robledo, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Malcolm-Jamal Warner's widow speaks out amid lawsuit with his mother
