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Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s mother is speaking out about his untimely death.
“The Cosby Show” star drowned while visiting Costa Rica in July. He was just 54.
Now, Pamela Warner tells “Good Morning America’s” Robin Roberts that Malcolm was in Costa Rica for his 8-year-old daughter’s home schooling.
Pamela explained, “His wife and daughter had been in Costa Rica three weeks prior. She’s homeschooled and this was part of an immersion program and so that was the last week… for the husbands to come and this was the fun part.”
Sharing details of what happened, she said of Malcolm and another man, “They were in the water, I think maybe chest deep at even at that, maybe waist deep. There was an undertow and my son was not an experienced swimmer. He did not know how to deal with an undertow.”
Pamela said the other man “was a more experienced swimmer and he was able to rescue himself, but Malcolm was not.”
As for reports that Malcolm’s daughter was in the water at the time, Pamela said, “She was on shore. She was not in the water.”
The littler girl, however, did see first responders try to resuscitate her dad.
“Children process differently,” Pamela said. “She watched them resuscitate him, 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.”
Pamela said of Warner’s wife Tenisha and their daughter, “They’re both in deep grief.”
As for Pamela, she was at home when she got the call that her son had died. She said she screamed so loud that neighbors from the end of her cul-de-sac came running.
“It was from the bottom of my soul,” Pamela said. “And what came up and what came out was huge. It was an undescribable pain that resonated throughout my body.”
Due to their close relationship, she is now “at peace” with his death.
“I’m at peace with everything that happened,” she said. “There was nothing left on the table. There was no shoulda, coulda, woulda. I wish I had said this. I wish I had have done this. I don’t have that. I feel that our journey together as mother and son was complete.”
Of his death, she explained, “That’s the physical part of it, but the spiritual part of it was that was his time. That was his time and that was the manner in which he was to transition. And this is what I believe and what I feel.”
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She shared that supporters can head to the MJW Living Legacy page on Instagram here, adding, “And love where you can, give when you can. Just be better. Just be better. Because that’s what he wanted, and that’s what he was working toward. We can all be better selves.”
Just days ago, Malcolm’s wife Tenisha spoke out for the first time after he kept her identity private for years.
She announced the launch of the Warner Family Foundation providing scholarships to young artists and River & Ember, which provides seasonal toolkits nurturing children’s emotional rhythms and strengthening family connections.
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Tenisha shared a wedding photo and wrote on Instagram, “Thank you for holding us in so much love during this tender time. Tomorrow marks our anniversary — and my heart is wide open.”
She continued, “For the first time, I’m sharing a glimpse of the love that began it all. I can still hear my husband’s laugh, still feel the way he made room for every part of me — every tear, every dream.
“Today, in his honor, my daughter and I are launching River & Ember and officially opening The Warner Family Foundation.”
Tenisha went on, “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.”
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