Pamela Warner, mother of the late actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner, has spoken publicly for the first time about the circumstances of his death. Warner, best known for his role as Theodore Huxtable on The Cosby Show, drowned in July while on a family holiday in Costa Rica. He was 54.
In an interview with ABC's Robin Roberts that aired on Tuesday, Pamela corrected earlier reports that suggested Warner had entered the water to save his eight-year-old daughter. “She was on shore. She was not in the water,” Pamela clarified. She explained that Warner was in waist-to-chest-deep water with another man when an undertow pulled them under. The other man, a more experienced swimmer, managed to escape, but Warner could not.
The Costa Rican Red Cross responded to the incident at Playa Grande resort in Cahuita, Limón. Medics performed CPR on Warner but he was pronounced dead at the scene. The official cause of death was asphyxia, confirmed by Costa Rican National Police.
Despite the tragedy, Pamela expressed a sense of peace. “That was his time,” she said. “That was the manner in which he was to transition, and this is what I believe and what I feel.”
Warner's widow, Tenisha Warner, also broke her silence in an Instagram post on Sunday. She announced the launch of River & Ember, an organisation to help parents support children through grief, and The Warner Family Foundation, which nurtures children's creativity. “Together we carry the legacy my husband and I began,” she wrote.
