Tenisha Warner, widow of Malcolm-Jamal Warner, opens up about being a single mom
Tenisha Warner sat down for an exclusive interview with "CBS Mornings" before a lawsuit over her late husband's estate became public, and discussed her grief and raising her daughter alone.
Updated on: July 22, 2026 / 8:09 AM EDT / CBS News
One year after actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner drowned in Costa Rica at the age of 54 while on vacation with his family, his widow, Tenisha Warner, has filed a lawsuit against his mother, Pamela Warner, in her capacity as successor trustee of the Warner family trust.
The suit seeks to recover at least $1.2 million from that family trust and alleges, in part, that Malcolm-Jamal Warner — known for playing Theo Huxtable on "The Cosby Show" — did not "purchase and maintain a term life insurance policy on his life in the amount of $1 million" or on Tenisha Warner's life, as allegedly stipulated in their premarital agreement.
Tenisha Warner sat down for an exclusive interview with "CBS Mornings" before the lawsuit was made public on Monday, the one-year anniversary of Malcolm-Jamal Warner's death. In it, she spoke mainly about her grief and how she is handling being a single mom now.
"Right now, everybody, like all of his family members and, who have lost him, they are grieving," Tenisha Warner said. "You know, it's been the biggest loss for all of us."
"The emotional capacity that I have can be very limited sometimes, you know? 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," she said. "And then the second is myself."