Skip to main content

Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s widow takes legal action against his mother for $1.2 million

Malcolm-Jamal Warner speaks during the 2023 Beloved Community Awards at Hyatt Regency Atlanta on Jan. 14, 2023, in Atlanta, Georgia. (Paras Griffin/Getty Images)

A year after his death, Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s widow, Dr. Tenisha Delilah Warner, is taking legal action against his mother, Pamela Warner.

In a lawsuit filed on July 20 in DeKalb County Superior Court in Georgia, Tenisha Delilah Warner claims that she is owed more than $1.2 million under a premarital agreement, including a $1 million life insurance policy that was never put in place by her late husband, who died in July 2025.

Tenisha Warner also alleges that The Cosby Show actor agreed to pay her $16,000 tax-free each year on their wedding anniversary, fund her Roth IRA for as long as they remained married, and pay her $5,000 a month for working as his chief of staff and assistant.

As a result, Tenisha Warner has named Pamela Warner in the lawsuit because she is the successor trustee of the Warner Family Trust.

“For the last year, I have attempted to privately settle my beloved husband’s complicated estate and honor his last wishes,” Tenisha Delilah Warner told ABC News in a statement. “Malcolm had every intention to provide for our nine-year-old daughter and me.”

She continued, “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.”

“I have been struggling to care for our daughter as a single mom and now as her sole provider,” she added. “Legally, I had no choice but to take action to protect our rights before any potential statute of limitations expired. We thank you for your support, love, and understanding as we work through this painful process while honoring Malcolm’s life on the first anniversary of his death.”

Tenisha Warner is asking a judge to prevent any trust assets from being distributed while the case moves forward.

ABC News has reached out to Pamela Warner for comment but she did not immediately respond.

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who is known for playing Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show, died on July 20, 2025, while swimming during a family vacation in Costa Rica. The actor was caught by a strong rip current. He was 54.

On the anniversary of his death, Pamela Warner took to Instagram to pay tribute to her son in a lengthy message.

“He was not just my son, but my go-to person, my confidant, my brother and sometimes he had to parent me,” Pamela Warner wrote.

She added, “As I look back, I have no regrets. Perhaps a little more time. Perhaps one more chance to cook his favorite meals, have one last good conversation, one last good deep belly laugh, the kind that produces those tears of pure joy, one last kiss, one last hug.”

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

A whisper from the rubble led to baby’s rescue after Colombia earthquake

By CNN
(CNN) — When the deadly 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck Colombia on Monday, Brian Osorio Zuluaga ran out of his office in Cali and rushed home on his motorbike.The sight of a collapsed five-story residential building forced him to stop.“It was a large complex, covering an entire block,” Osorio told CNN.The quake was the strongest to hit Colombia in more than a decade and sent residents and neighbors of the building, La Torres del Limonar, fleeing into the street, “some in sleepwear or pajamas; some crying, others in shock,” Osorio said.He approached the rubble and began shouting into the wreckage for survivors, despite warnings about a possible gas leak.He suddenly asked those around him for silence. A faint sound rose out of the debris — barely a whisper.“Yes, I’m here. I’m with a baby,” a man’s voice replied.Osorio described how he and several others began moving debris with their hands to reach the pair. But a large concrete slab blocked their way.“On the first attempt, we couldn’t lift it,” he said. Then, “we all lifted together — one, two, three, up.”The slab was too heavy to toss aside, and Osorio was worried there could be more people trapped underneath. Some volunteers held it aloft as others cleared a path to the baby.“You can see the baby’s little head there — which, at the time, looked sort of purplish because he couldn’t breathe,” Osorio said. “Once we started removing the rubble, the baby began to… breathe, and his color started to come back.”Video of the remarkable rescue filmed by Osorio shows the tiny infant in a dusty bodysuit being carefully pulled out of the wreckage. A man, his arm bloodied, can be seen lying awkwardly on his side, still half-trapped under a concrete plank.Osorio said he was handed the baby, a boy, and gave him to a police officer, who took him to an ambulance. They then turned their attention to freeing the trapped man.In the rubble, Osorio said he saw clothes, shoes, and a stuffed animal covered in dust. He thought about the people who might still be trapped.“All those thoughts go through your mind,” he said.The bravery of everyone who rushed to help was what saved the lives of both man and baby.“Unity is strength, because no one person alone could have lifted that piece of rubble; it was so large and so heavy,” he said.“It’s better to act than to stand still,” Osorio added. “Every bit helps.”Rescue efforts enter third daySearch and rescue operations entered their third day early on Wednesday, as emergency responders raced to find more survivors after the powerful quake struck western Colombia, killing more than 200 people, according to a CNN count based on reports from officials.The quake struck at the heart of the country’s coffee-growing region and catapulted communities into a state of national disaster as world leaders offered aid and assistance.The European Union has mobilized its satellite service Copernicus and is providing funding to help the response, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.In Cali, a woman was pulled from under a mountain of rubble on Tuesday to cheers as firemen carried her out on a stretcher following a complex, multinational rescue operation.And in Pereira, a CNN team on the ground saw rescue workers and volunteers form a human chain to remove debris and help save those trapped from an apartment building.“There’s folks who have jumped in and you can see they’re wearing everything from athleisure wear to shorts, tennis shoes — they’re not prepared for this,” CNN’s senior national correspondent David Culver said from the site. “We have seen scenes like this scattered throughout Pereira. This is one of the hardest-hit areas.”But in the epicenter of Monday’s earthquake, Chocó, an indigenous leader told CNN that help has yet to reach the area, Colombia’s poorest region.Victor Chamapuro, leader of the Wounaan Indigenous Reserve “Buenavista” in Chocó’s Litoral del San Juan, said “all our houses are on the ground.”“Where are we going to sleep now? We have to be alert now, we’re sleeping outside,” he said.Chamapuro called on authorities to send food and medicine, saying one person in the community was injured.The “Buenavista” reserve can only be reached by boat on a five-hour journey from the port of Buenaventura, on Colombia’s Pacific coast.Video sent by Chamapuro from the reserve shows flattened buildings that appear to be built from timber and corrugated iron sheets. Others are still standing but with varying levels of damage.The earthquake is one of the first major challenges for Colombia’s new far-right President Abelardo de la Espriella, who took office only last week and has promised to strike hard at criminal groups and leftist militants in Colombia.De la Espriella on Tuesday announced economic relief measures for those affected by the quake, and financial support for people who have lost their homes to rent temporary housing.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
Read Next Story

Related Stories

Latest News
Another Democratic nail-biter in Wisconsin and other takeaways from Tuesday’s primaries
58 minutes ago

Another Democratic nail-biter in Wisconsin and other takeaways from Tuesday’s primaries

Painted Bridges Unites Taiwan and Houston Through Art

Getting naked in the world’s largest department store

Sen. Klobuchar projected winner of DFL primary in Minnesota governor's race

✨ Houston Style Magazine is proud to serve as a 2026 Media Sponsor of the Houston Area Urban League’s Equal Opportunity Day Gala!