Malcolm-Jamal Warners Widow Reveals Kids Decision Shift

Malcolm-Jamal Warner's widow Tenisha Warner has explained why the late actor decided to have a child, after previously shunning the idea.

Tenisha, 48, on Thursday, marking her first public appearance since the Cosby Show star died suddenly by drowning aged 54 in July 2025.

The Warners shared nine-year-old daughter MacKenzie. 

'He said to me that he knew that, even if things didn’t work out [for us romantically], that I would be the woman he would want raising his child. 

'And so for him, it was like, even if this doesn’t work out, like I know you would be such a wonderful mother,' the mom of one shared.

The couple married in 2017, and were together for a decade before while on a family vacation in Costa Rica.

Tenisha told King about striking up a romance with the entertainer, 'I thought, if he never wants children, this is not my person. 

'But, you know, everybody I’ve been with up until then wasn’t my person, and that was okay and so I was open to whatever that might turn into.'

She explained, 'We had never talked about a child again. And then six months later, he came to me and said, "Do you want to start a family?""

Tenisha is in an ugly prenup battle with Warner's mother, Pamela Warner, over $1.2 million.  

The former has submitted multiple legal filings in an effort to collect around $1, 270,000 from a family trust headed by her mother-in-law. 

She named Pamela in a lawsuit in Georgia's DeKalb County Superior Court on Monday, according to documents reviewed by Daily Mail.

Tenisha made her filings on the one-year anniversary of her husband's death.

'For the last year, I have attempted to privately settle my beloved husband’s complicated estate and honor his last wishes,' Tenisha told the Daily Mail in a statement on Tuesday. 

'Malcolm had every intention to provide for our nine-year-old daughter and me.' 

She said of Warner, who famously portrayed Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show: '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.'

Tenisha said she has 'been struggling to care for [her and Warner's] daughter as a single mom and now as her sole provider,' and legally 'had no choice but to take action to protect our rights before any potential statute of limitations expired.'

The Daily Mail has reached out to representatives for Pamela Warner for comment but has yet to hear back.

Tenisha said in the Georgia filing that on May 15, 2022, she and the late actor came to an agreement in which he consented to making her the sole beneficiary of a life insurance policy worth $1 million.

However, the paperwork was not formalized prior to his untimely passing.

Warner did not buy or keep up the life insurance policy, Tenisha said in the lawsuit.

Tenisha also cited unpaid expenses left by the deceased, including $16,000 in yearly tax-free payments 'per year on each anniversary of the parties' marriage' that eclipsed $50,000.

She said the lifelong performer agreed to place $30,500 into a Roth IRA in her name, as well as make a monthly payment of $5,000 to her for working as his chief of staff and assistant.

According to the filing, the payments amounted to around $195,000.

Tenisha said that she did not think his estate had been funded, and wanted the assets taken from a family trust the actor set up, which is controlled by his mother.

'Plaintiff performed all obligations required of her under the Agreement, including entering into and remaining in the marriage until the Decedent's death,' stated the Georgia filing. 'The Decedent died without having satisfied his obligations under the Agreement, and no person or entity has paid or provided the sums due to Plaintiff.'

It was also requested that the court put a hold on the money in the estate to prevent it from being distributed before the case is sorted.