Fans of the late-Malcolm-Jamal Warner probably didn’t know he was married as he didn’t talk about his relationships often. Turns out, “The Cosby Show” alum had been a husband of eight years when he died. Now, nearly two months after his untimely death, his widow has identified herself for the first time with a touching wedding anniversary post.
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On Friday (Sept. 12), Warner’s widow, Tenisha Warner, paid tribute to him from a new Instagram account. In a post, she shared a photo from the couple’s wedding of the pair holding hands and smiling.
“Thank you for holding us in so much love during this tender time,” Tenisha wrote. “Tomorrow marks our anniversary — and my heart is wide open. For the first time, I’m sharing a glimpse of the love that began it all.”
In her heartfelt caption, she wrote how she “can still hear my husband’s laugh,
still feel the way he made room for every part of me — every tear, every dream.”
Her caption also announced the opening of The Warner Family Foundation. “Together we carry the legacy my husband and I began— one that nurtures children’s inner light and gives young artists the freedom to create outside the lines,” she penned. “This is love, Still moving. Still making. Still carrying us forward.”
Warner’s fans probably wasn’t privy about his personal life, as he often kept his family life out of the spotlight. However in May 2025, Warner, who met Tenisha through a mutual friend in 2017, opened up about their relationship on the Hot & Bothered podcast. “I met my wife at 45, so like it’s OK to wait, you don’t have to be in your 20s looking for your soulmate,” he said, adding how he “never second-guessed” his marriage with Tenisha. “There was a moment where I realized when people say, ‘When you know, you know,’ that’s what that feeling is,” he said.
“We’ve been together almost 10 years and we have never had a fight, an argument, a raised voice or a harsh word said to one another,” Warner said. “And it’s not like we agree on everything. I think because we met later in life, we’ve just always been at a point where we have a way of communicating like adults.”
In April 2021, Warner posted an Instagram carousel of him and Tenisha’s daughter baking a cake together, describing how, “On our first date, neither of us was really checking for the other.” His caption continued: We “were pretty clear that this was not going to become anything other than maybe a cool friendship” as they were “on different pages” about becoming parents; Tenisha wanted kids but he didn’t at the time. But after casually dating, Warner had a change of heart and asked to start a family with Tenisha.
“We took more time to experience each other to make sure it was more than a cool concept,” he wrote in part. “Never in my wildest dreams did I envision that a few years later I’d be making my very first cake with the help of the beautiful manifestation of our love, who is truly our “mini us.””
Warner died on July 20, 2025, while on a family vacation in Costa Rica. He was 54.
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