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In an interview with Gayle King, Tenisha Warner reflected on grief and explained why her 9-year-old daughter has become her top priority
NEED TO KNOW
- Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s widow, Tenisha Warner, appeared to hint at distance with her mother-in-law in a CBS Mornings interview filmed before her $1.2 million lawsuit became public
- Host Gayle King said she did not know about the legal dispute when she asked Tenisha about her relationship with Malcolm’s mother
- The interview preview aired one day after PEOPLE reported that Tenisha sued Pamela, who oversees the Warner Family Trust, over alleged unpaid obligations tied to Malcolm’s estate
Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s widow Tenisha Warner appeared to hint at distance with her mother-in-law during a CBS Mornings interview conducted before she filed a lawsuit against the late actor’s mother over his estate.
In a preview of the sit-down, teased on Wednesday, July 22, ahead of its airing on Thursday, Gayle King asked Tenisha about her relationship with Pamela Warner, who now controls the family trust at the center of their legal dispute.
Rather than directly answering whether the two remain close, Tenisha explained that her focus has been on caring for the couple’s 9-year-old daughter while navigating grief.
“Do you communicate with his mom? Are you close to his mom?” King asked, noting that Pamela lives in Los Angeles.
“Yeah...” Tenisha replied. “Right now, everybody — all of his family members and everyone who has lost him — they are grieving. You know, it’s been the biggest loss for all of us. Right now, my daughter and I are just like....”
King then interjected, “You guys are a unit.”
“Yeah,” Tenisha continued. “It’s … 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. And then the second is myself.”
After the preview aired, King emphasized that neither she nor the CBS Mornings team knew about the legal dispute when they conducted the interview. The journalist, 71, insisted she had simply been curious about Tenisha’s relationship with Pamela after the actor’s mother publicly reflected on her son’s death in the months after his passing.
“We did this interview without knowing about this lawsuit. I was really just asking this question in passing because Pamela had spoken out — she and her son were very, very, very close,” King said.
“I thought her answer was telling,” King added, noting that Tenisha did not respond by saying she and Pamela were regularly communicating or grieving together. “But I did not know that all of this was going on.”
News broke on Tuesday that Tenisha had filed lawsuits in Georgia and California seeking more than $1.2 million from Malcolm’s family trust.
In a lawsuit filed in DeKalb County Superior Court in Georgia, obtained by PEOPLE, Tenisha alleges she and the late actor signed a premarital agreement in May 2022 and claims he agreed to secure a $1 million life insurance policy naming her as the sole beneficiary, though he allegedly never obtained the policy.
Pamela serves as trustee of the Warner Family Trust, which Malcolm established in 1996. Tenisha argues the trust should satisfy the alleged debt because she believes Malcolm’s estate “will be inadequate to satisfy” the obligations.
According to Los Angeles County court documents obtained by PEOPLE, Tenisha alleges she is owed $1,276,042.46, comprising the alleged $1 million life insurance obligation, $50,542.46 for an anniversary payment obligation outlined in their premarital agreement, $30,500 related to a Roth IRA obligation, and $195,000 in alleged unpaid salary for her work as Malcolm’s chief of staff.
She is also seeking interest, attorney’s fees and an order preventing Pamela from distributing assets from the trust while the litigation is pending.
PEOPLE has reached out to attorneys for Pamela for comment.
After news of the lawsuit became public, Tenisha said in a statement shared with PEOPLE that she had tried to resolve the matter privately.
“For the last year, I have attempted to privately settle my beloved husband’s complicated estate and honor his last wishes,” she said. “Malcolm had every intention to provide for our 9-year-old daughter and me.”
She added that Malcolm had been “close to finalizing a new estate plan” to replace the trust he established in 1996, but “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,” Tenisha continued. “Legally, I had no choice but to take action to protect our rights before any potential statute of limitations expired.”
Malcolm, best known for playing Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show from 1984 to 1992, died in an accidental drowning while on a family vacation in Costa Rica on July 20, 2025. He was 54.
On the first anniversary of his death, Pamela shared a tribute on her son’s legacy Instagram account, reflecting on the difficult year since his passing.
“During my year long journey, I have discovered how cruel, evil and greedy a human can be,” she wrote in part. “I have also discovered the depth of love, care, concern and support that humans are capable of.”
King’s full interview with Tenisha airs Thursday, July 23, on CBS Mornings.
Read the original article on People
