Pamela Warner, mother of Malcolm-Jamal Warner sat down with Good Morning America host, Robin Roberts in a first-time interview since her son’s death.
“I’m very grateful that I was chosen to be his mother,” says Pamela. “There was nothing left on the table. There was no ‘shoulda, coulda woulda’… I feel that our journey together as mother and son was complete.” Pamela saying, “It was his time,” spiritually for how her son transitioned at 54. The details: Malcolm had arrived for the last week of an home-schooling program when he accidentally drowned when caught in a strong ocean current near Cocles, a beach in Limon. Malcolm was in the water with another man who was also caught in the undertow, but was able to rescue himself unlike Malcolm, who Pamela says was not an experienced swimmer.
Pamela gave an update in her GMA interview about how “the pain is still fresh for Malcolm Jamal’s wife Tenisha Warner and their daughter,” lovingly called her dad, Papa. “Children process differently,” Pamela told Roberts. “She watched them resuscitate him, try to resuscitate him. She saw that, and I know that’s awfully, awfully traumatic.”
Pamela Warner fighting back tears encouraged others to honor son’s memory and his legacy in the following.
“Support the MJW Living Legacy page,” she said, referring to an Instagram page she started to honor her son.
“And love where you can, give when you can. Just be better. Just be better,” Pamela Warner continued. “Because that’s what he wanted, and that’s what he was working toward. We can all be better selves.”
A couple of days before Pamela’s interview, Malcolm was remembered at the 77th Emmys. Phylicia Rashad opened the ceremony for the In Memoriam segment, with moving words for her TV son Malcolm-Jamal Warner.
“He was a beloved teenager in an iconic television series that the world watched grow into manhood,” Rashad began her tribute. “And like all our friends and colleagues who transitioned this past year, Malcolm-Jamal Warner remains in our hearts.
On September 12, Tenisha took to social media to speak candidly about the loss of her husband, while also honoring their recent wedding anniversary, September Tenisha shared that she and her daughter are launching the Warner Family Foundation and River & Ember.
Credit: Credit: Heidi Gutman/ABC
