Real-Life Love
Was Malcolm-Jamal Warner Married? Everything We Know About His Wife
Malcolm-Jamal Warner left behind a wife and child when he died by drowning on July 20. The actor was on a family vacation in Costa Rica when he “died as a result of asphyxiation by submersion” while swimming.
After some high-profile relationships in his past, Warner mostly kept his marriage out of the public eye. He married his wife in 2017, and they welcomed their daughter the following year. Scroll down for everything we know about Warner’s lady.
Who was Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s wife?
Warner never revealed his wife’s identity and rarely posted photos with her or their daughter on social media. However, while appearing on the Hot & Bothered podcast in May, just two months before he died, The Cosby Show star gave some insight into the woman he married.
He revealed that his wife is “Black and Puerto Rican,” and that they’d been together for “almost 10 years” at the time of the interview.
“We have never had a fight, an argument, a raised voice, or a harsh word said to one another,” Warner dished. “It’s not like we agree on everything, [though].” Referring to her Black and Puerto Rican roots, he added that his wife “is not incapable of the smoke,” but pointed out that “because we met later in life, we just always have been at a point where we have a way of communicating like adults.”
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As for his decision not to post his wife and daughter online, Warner explained, “I talk about them because they’re obviously the hugest parts of my life, the best parts of my life. The best decisions I’ve ever made. But I like to keep them and their identity private. But I also feel I love talking about them because I want people to know that it is possible to be happy and to have love and love really be enriching.”
How did Malcolm-Jamal Warner meet his wife?
Warner met his wife at an unexpected time in his life. Their meeting came after he got out of a six-year relationship and then “spent the next two years like a man who had been in a relationship for six years.” At that point, he decided to “slow [his] roll” and stop dating. During this period, he met his future wife through a mutual friend.
“Our mutual friend was like, ‘Well, one day, it won’t hurt. At the end of the day, it could be a really cool friend or a really cool spiritual connect,'” Warner recalled. “And I was like, ‘That’s cool,’ because some of the things I needed to work on, I couldn’t work on if I’m completely disengaged from the opposite sex.”
On their first date, Warner revealed to his future bride that he was “at peace with not having kids” because he thought the next chapter in his life would be “about something bigger than marriage and family.” He realized he and his date were not on the same page at all because she “definitely” wanted kids. This worked for Warner, who viewed their differences as a reason to maintain a friendship, rather than a romantic relationship, with this woman.
They didn’t go on another date until the following month, and after building a “really cool friendship” over the next five and a half months, Warner broached the topic of children again. “We had never talked about kids since that first day, and I said, ‘What do you think about starting a family?'” he remembered. Of his change of heart, he explained, “At some point, I was thinking, ‘If I am going to have a kid, this is the person I’d want to have one with.’ I realized if something happened and we were not together romantically, she would still be the person I’d want to raise a child with.”
That’s when they decided to give it a go, and the rest is history. “I met my wife at 45,” Warner pointed out. “It’s okay to wait. You don’t have to be in your 20s looking for your soulmate, and you never really know who the f**k you are. I talk about [my wife and daughter] because I’m very proud of my life and especially that aspect of my life.”
Who else did Malcolm-Jamal Warner date?
Warner was in a relationship with Michelle Thomas, his onscreen love interest on The Cosby Show, until she died in 1998. He was then in a relationship with Karen Malina White from 2000 to 2007, and Regina King from 2011 to 2013.
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On the Hot & Bothered podcast, Warner was asked how he knew his wife was “the one” after previously ending a long-term relationship when he realized that person wasn’t who he wanted to be with.
“If that’s the relationship that’s all over the media, that’s not how it went down,” he said, without naming names. “And neither one of us are happy about that narrative. But also, just as protective as we were about our relationship when we were together, we’re just as protective about the breakup. Honestly, the story about how we broke up is f**ked up and wrong and doesn’t really put either of us in a positive light, but also it’s not worth going out to the news and saying, ‘Oh, this is what really happened.’ It’s nobody’s business. I’m okay with taking that L. We know that’s not how it went down. People who are in our lives know that’s not how it went down.”
