Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s Mom Says His Daughter Is in ‘Deep Grief’ After His Death

Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s mom Pamela is clarifying some of the circumstances surrounding the actor’s death.

On Tuesday, Sept. 16, the late actor’s mom appeared on Good Morning America and spoke with Robin Roberts about how their family has been coping since Warner’s sudden death from drowning during a July 2025 family vacation to Costa Rica.

Although Pamela shared that she’s “at peace with everything that happened,” she explained that her son’s wife and his 8-year-old daughter were both still actively in “deep grief.”

“Children process differently,” Pamela said of her granddaughter. “She watched them resuscitate him, try to resuscitate him. She saw that, and I know that’s awfully, awfully traumatic.”

“She loved her father dearly,” added Pamela. “She adored Papa. He was Papa. And so they’re both in deep grief.”

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Elsewhere in the interview, Pamela shared that the reason the family had been in Costa Rica was because their daughter was taking part in a Spanish immersion program.

“His wife and daughter had been in Costa Rica three weeks prior,” Pamela told Roberts. “She is homeschooled, and this was part of an immersion program.”

Warner had arrived during the third and final week, which was “for the husbands to come,” Pamela said, and was supposed to be “the fun part.”

She also confirmed that Warner’s daughter was not in the water during the time of his drowning, despite some reports that stated she was.

“She was not in the water. He was with another gentleman,” Pamela said.

“They were in the water, I think maybe chest deep, even at that — maybe waist deep,” she explained. “There was an undertow, and my son was not an experienced swimmer. He did not know how to deal with an undertow.”

On Sept. 12, Warner’s wife Tenisha shared a photo from her 2017 wedding to her late husband and broke her silence on the loss.

“Thank you for holding us in so much love during this tender time,” she 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. I can still hear my husband’s laugh, still feel the way he made room for every part of me — every tear, every dream. 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.”