Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s widow speaks out amid estate fight

Tenisha Warner says her first priority after Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s death is their 9-year-old daughter, even as a new legal fight over the late actor’s estate moves into public view.

Warner, the widow of the actor best known for playing Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show, spoke with CBS Mornings before a lawsuit against Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s mother, Pamela Warner, became public on Monday, CBS News reported. Monday marked one year since Malcolm-Jamal Warner drowned in Costa Rica at age 54 while vacationing with his family.

In the interview, Tenisha Warner described the loss as devastating for the family. “Right now, everybody, like all of his family members and, who have lost him, they are grieving,” she told CBS Mornings. “You know, it’s been the biggest loss for all of us.”

She said her energy is limited as she grieves and parents alone. “The emotional capacity that I have can be very limited sometimes,” she said, adding that she has to decide what she can give “in this moment.” She told CBS that whatever she has to give goes first to her daughter, then to herself.

The lawsuit targets the family trust

According to CBS News, Tenisha Warner has sued Pamela Warner in her role as successor trustee of the Warner family trust. The complaint seeks at least $1.2 million from the trust.

The lawsuit alleges that Malcolm-Jamal Warner failed to buy and keep a $1 million term life insurance policy on his own life, and a policy on Tenisha Warner’s life, as allegedly required by their prenuptial agreement, CBS News reported.

After the lawsuit was filed, Tenisha Warner said in a statement through her spokesperson that she had spent the past year trying to resolve what she called her husband’s “complicated estate” privately and honor his wishes.

“Malcolm had every intention to provide for our 9-year-old daughter and me,” she said in the statement provided to CBS. She said he had been close to completing a new estate plan to replace an older one created in 1996, when he was 26, about 20 years before they met and before their daughter was born. She said he died before that plan could be finished.

Pamela Warner posts about grief

CBS News said CBS Mornings contacted Pamela Warner’s attorneys for comment but had not received a response.

In an Instagram post on Monday night, Pamela Warner wrote about looking back without regrets, while wishing for more time with her son. She mentioned wanting another chance to cook his favorite meals, talk with him, laugh with him, kiss him and hug him.

She also wrote that during the past year she had seen “how cruel, evil, and greedy a human can be,” while also seeing the “love, care, concern, and support” people can show.

CBS said more of Tenisha Warner’s interview is set to air Thursday on CBS Mornings.

This story draws on original reporting from CBS News.