July 22, 2026
Widows of Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Chadwick Boseman Battle In-Laws
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RSS Feed The family of Chadwick Boseman is taking legal action against his widow over money they say they’re owed following the actor’s death in 2020. This headline, comes on the heels of another one involving the widow of Malcom Jamal Warner taking legal action against his mother for money she claims she’s owed. Neither actor had a will in place, and now it’s a legal and familial mess that’s incredibly sad to see played out in public.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey, that folks, it is Wednesday, July twenty second, and really not sure why it stung so much to read the headlines that Malcolm Jamal Warner's widow and Chadwick Boseman's widow are both respectively fighting with the families of their dead husbands, and with that, welcome to this episode of amy, and TJ wrote strangely, this was so sad and upsetting for whatever reason.
00:00:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's now turned into a bizarre coincidence because we first read about I think first we were made aware of Malcolm Jamal Warner's widow and his mother fighting over money. He died a year ago, tragically, drowning on family vacation. Just a sad story to so to hear that headline was just gutting, frankly, And then all of a sudden, a few hours later, the headlines are Chadwick Boseman's widow is now being legally pursued by his own brothers on behalf of their parents, trying to get money again from Chadwick Boseman's estate. So to hear these two prominent actors who died way too soon tragically, who.
00:01:24
Speaker 3: Were beloved beloved.
00:01:27
Speaker 2: By folks, just to hear that now this is what's happened to their respective family.
00:01:33
Speaker 1: Beloved, mainstream, generational, iconic characters that these guys have played. These weren't just two actors. These guys were important to pop culture and will forever be so, quite frankly agreed, So we all adore these two and so ROMs. You want to hope for a Kumbaya moment. You want to think that everybody in the family surrounded the widow and everybody was supporting everybody. But these are not just fights in public spats. No, no, no, no, these are happening in court, folks, And it's just for whatever reason, I guess it happens. And we've seen things like this before. Robes another reminder, gets your affairs in order. Good God.
00:02:14
Speaker 2: And that was one of the takeaways because I had a couple thoughts first off, and we haven't discussed this actually between the two of us. I think we just saved it for the podcast because I have a lot of thoughts here. First of all, it's just so sad that it ends up just being about money, and that just leaves a bad taste in your mouth. These these two men were just incredible actors, highly successful, highly regarded, and they worked really hard to get where they are, to create a certain amount of money to take care of their family, the people they love, and to the idea to think that they could be looking down and seeing their family members fighting one another for the money they worked so hard to amass. It just sucks. There's that part of it. But also the other side of of it is they're just like us. Celebrities are just like us. It doesn't matter how much money you make, how famous you are, what your life may look like from the outside. On the inside where all human beings, there are family problems, family riffs, there's fights over money, there's ego involved, and we're all the same.
00:03:29
Speaker 3: And I just look at that from two different perspectives.
00:03:33
Speaker 1: And both of these cases robes kids are involved, in particular a child, a nine year old child, and both sides happened to be involved. So that we're going to start with Chadwick Boseman. But Chadwick in the case of his family, it's the family suing or taking the court the widow.
00:03:52
Speaker 3: Correct.
00:03:53
Speaker 1: In Malcolm and Jamal Warner's case, it's the widow who is having to take the family to court. Explain here First, what's happening with Chadwick Boseman. His wife is widow, Taylor Ledward is her name. Now, who's involved here? His brothers, Kevin and Dereck Boseman have essentially gone to court on behalf of the parents. They have petitioned to court to have her removed as administrator. They are saying she hasn't properly distributed his assets, also saying that the parents are being denied rights to make decisions about his estate robes. We start with this, he did not have a will.
00:04:28
Speaker 2: And that is the ding Ding ding ding Ding problem. Look, I think when you're as young as he was now. Granted, he had been fighting cancer for four years before his death, and he was fighting it privately, and maybe that was part of his reasoning for not wanting to draw attention to it. But I can tell you when you're at a certain age in your forties and your fifties in the case of Malcolm Jamal Warner in his forties for the case of Chadwick, not a lot of people in those age brackets are thinking about making wills.
00:04:57
Speaker 3: And I can just take this on a personal level.
00:04:59
Speaker 2: I this is a little creepy, but I created a will the night before I went in for my double mistectomy. You start thinking about these things when you start realizing that perhaps you're vulnerable. But I don't know that a lot of people even consider estate planning when you're in your forties and fifties. And so Chadwick Boseman did not have a will.
00:05:20
Speaker 1: I have to wonder where that's weird.
00:05:22
Speaker 3: But he was fighting cancer for years.
00:05:25
Speaker 1: There's no way shocking. He didn't think it was possible he could die.
00:05:29
Speaker 2: Maybe he didn't want to believe he was going to die. And by going and going to look when you go and walk into that office and again I waited until the night before my surgery, and I was shaking, and I was scared, and I just wanted to have my daughters protected. That was where I landed. But it took actually a lot of courage to walk in there. And actually, when you're going to create this will, you're actually admitting I could die. I might die on that operating table. And for him to walk into an estate planner, maybe that was him admitting that he might die and he wasn't willing to do that. But because he wasn't able or chose not to make a will, even though he was battling cancer. This unfortunately is the result, and it's just incredibly sad to see it play out like this. But I do think there's a part of folks who just don't want to believe that they could die, and making a will acknowledges.
00:06:20
Speaker 1: That, you know what, Robes you just I haven't thought about it until this exact moment. Alex Trebec. You know, that was one of the great pleasures in honors of my life, the time I got to spend with him before he died. Robes he was eighty with pancreatic cancer. They had to drag him in to get his affairs in order. He said, he kept putting it off and putting he had pancreatic cancer, baby, and he didn't want to go in and get his affairs to oil. And he was eighty years old.
00:06:51
Speaker 3: Chills.
00:06:51
Speaker 2: Nobody wants to admit that they might die.
00:06:54
Speaker 3: And I just think it's that it's this thing.
00:06:57
Speaker 2: Maybe you're afraid you're gonna jinx it, or you're just just letting your mind go there. It's too hard. And so he didn't have a will. Now he did, and I think this is of note. We don't know what was going on in their marriage and their relationship and within that family dynamic.
00:07:14
Speaker 3: But here he is with.
00:07:17
Speaker 2: Taylor Simone Ledward and I think she goes by Taylor Ledward Boseman.
00:07:21
Speaker 3: I think she hyphenated her name. He married her. I don't think I remembered this four days before he died. Is that?
00:07:27
Speaker 2: Was it? That?
00:07:28
Speaker 1: Within a week? Yes, But I don't remember that being a part of the story.
00:07:31
Speaker 3: I don't either.
00:07:32
Speaker 1: I just used to them being together. They were around, they were together.
00:07:35
Speaker 3: For they had a child together at least a decade.
00:07:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so then the girl, the little one's nine. So yeah, So I didn't think anything out, to be quite honest, Ropes. I was always just thought it was his wife, his wife wife.
00:07:48
Speaker 2: So he marries her, probably when he knows that he is in his final days, and so sure, he didn't go and get his affairs in order. He didn't have a will, but he married her. And that to me, he says a lot, because you know that when you are married, there are certain rights there. They're marital shared assets. And that's where I'm a little confused, because if they were married, they share a child together.
00:08:13
Speaker 3: He dies.
00:08:14
Speaker 2: I know it varies state by state, but it's pretty much a fifty to fifty thing.
00:08:18
Speaker 3: I've never heard of parents unless he.
00:08:21
Speaker 2: Specifically had certain money set aside, and maybe he did this early in his career. I mean, look, different phases of your life, you have different needs and different wants and different desires. And we don't know what he told his parents, what he told his brothers, but he married her, and so I'm just confused why it wouldn't just all be hers and their child.
00:08:44
Speaker 1: It was a situation. There is a court order bro why it was issued. Was it possibly tied to the fact that it was only six days or whatever before that they had been married. Who knows, but there is According to the brothers who have now taken this legal action, have presented to the court that there is a previous order that says that fifty percent of his money goes to the widow, twenty five percent to mom, twenty five percent to dad, and that's how it's supposed to be broken down. The issue they are saying, Robes is that none of that money that's supposed to go to mom and dad has gone to them.
00:09:24
Speaker 2: And the other issue they're claiming, they're saying that she's hiding assets that yes, apparently he supposedly had an estate worth three point eight million. They're claiming that he's had royalties and sag after checks that do come in for actors residuals that amount to maybe as much as three million more dollars, that she's not being transparent about that. They feel their parents are owed.
00:09:49
Speaker 3: Again.
00:09:49
Speaker 2: I'm just trying to get my head around this because when you're in a married couple, and you're right, it was six days before his death.
00:09:55
Speaker 3: They got married.
00:09:56
Speaker 2: I didn't even think parents or siblings or frankly, anyone other than the wife and your child have any legal claim to your money.
00:10:05
Speaker 1: No, unless it's been established in some way with they are presenting it before a court. They're even asking for her to be held in contempt. They're asking for her to be removed as administrator. They're asking for forensic forensic analysis or accountant rather to be brought in. Yeah, robes, they are contempt. That is suggesting that she is violating a order.
00:10:29
Speaker 2: And they also went on to say in this filing that she has blocked his family. This is where it gets ugly and nasty and gross, and I don't know what this is referencing but it just sounds icky that she has blocked Chadwick's family from quote, pursuing lucrative business opportunities that might benefit Chadwick's elderly parents.
00:10:53
Speaker 1: Okay, I know I get it, but it reads like, Hey, we want to make money off of his name and she won't let us.
00:11:00
Speaker 3: That is how it reads.
00:11:01
Speaker 1: You can say it is leal and put it in the nicest term.
00:11:04
Speaker 3: It sounds awful.
00:11:05
Speaker 1: It sounds awful.
00:11:05
Speaker 3: It sounds awful.
00:11:06
Speaker 2: She won't let us use Chadwick's name to make money for our elderly parents.
00:11:12
Speaker 1: And again, I don't know what the circumstances are. I don't know what kind of shape theory, and I don't know how he was taking care of them. And there may be they I'm sure they do. Roald. I want to give everybody a benefit of doubt and some grace that they are doing this.
00:11:24
Speaker 3: With good intents on behalf of their elderly parents.
00:11:28
Speaker 1: But Dan, why they can't work this out with her quietly? There is a legacy here. He means something to all of us. Yeah, we don't want to see this.
00:11:38
Speaker 2: It's just it's like I said, on one hand, it's so tough to see this happening to people who we have put up on a pedestal. And on the other hand, it's a reminder that they're just like us. They have family problems, just like us. They're afraid to make wills, just like many of us. But man, when you aren't willing to take that brave step and acknowledge that yes, you two one day will die, that you one day might die unexpectedly young even and if you don't have your affairs in order, and if you haven't made your wishes known in a legally binding document, this, unfortunately, is what can occur.
00:12:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, we've been talking here about Black Panther. Well stay here, we're going to talk next about Fio Huxtable. Yes, his widow has sued his mom and she has a particular number in mind. One million, two hundred and seventy six thousand, forty two dollars and forty six cents.
00:12:41
Speaker 2: Welcome back, everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ. Well, we'll start now talking about the Malcolm Jamal Warner estate and what's happening with the money that he left behind. Look, this is tough, and he truly died in a shocking accident. This was a drowning death on a family vacation. This was in Costa Rica, correct, last summer, almost exactly one year ago. He died in July of twenty twenty five. And now his widow, and she also they have a child together, is raising their child.
00:13:19
Speaker 3: She is now suing his mom to.
00:13:23
Speaker 2: Recover yes, around one point two million dollars from the family trust because she said they signed a prenup. And look, they were together, and again, he wasn't thinking he was dying or he was going to die. He was fifty four years old, and they had been married for three years, but had been together for a very long time.
00:13:39
Speaker 3: And yes, and look I get it.
00:13:43
Speaker 2: He hadn't gotten around to fulfilling the the line items that he agreed to in their prenup, probably because they were blissfully married and.
00:13:52
Speaker 3: Sharing all their assets.
00:13:54
Speaker 1: So get around.
00:13:55
Speaker 2: Why do you need to go put this amount of money in her account?
00:13:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, I get it. He truly is.
00:14:00
Speaker 2: Basically, I'm sure they were both thinking in the event of a divorce, this would be money that he would owe to her. I mean, that's almost assuredly what it was, because probably they were just dealing with all of the at the bills together. I mean, I'm sure it wasn't an issue of whether or not he was putting it in her account. At that point, they didn't think he was going to be gone. The marriage was probably going well, and she didn't think to ask for the money. So now posthumously she's having to try to get some of that money that she feels she's owed because when he died it reverted back to a document he had made when he was twenty six years old, before he met his wife, before he had a child, when he was a single dude, probably at the height of his fame. He created a trust like a lot of high earners do, to protect his assets, probably from failed relationships, etc. He figured my mom is the safest place, and that's where it went when he died. Uh. Oh, now you've got an issue, right, because now his wife wants that money.
00:15:09
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know. This is a weird one to where what does she do? What does she owed? You have a prenuptial agreement, this is but that agreement doesn't kick in, does it unless you're divorce? Is that fair?
00:15:20
Speaker 2: You know?
00:15:20
Speaker 1: That's a good point, owed, And again, the way she breaks it down is that she he agreed in a life insurance policy of one million dollars. A life insurance policy of a million dollars. He was supposed to as a part of this prenuptial agreement get that for her. He was also supposed to give her sixteen thousand dollars cash she's owed for every anniversary. Now does that mean rogues every year they like it happens live while they're married and happy, or if they get divorced you go back and she's owed sixteen thousand a year for every year they were married. Which way is that supposed to play out?
00:15:52
Speaker 2: You know? I don't know, babe, and I actually had not thought about what you just said out loud.
00:15:57
Speaker 1: Freeing up goes into effect when there's a divorce. Does she have a rite, baby? I don't know. And that's what a court is going to find out. This is something he was supposed to do for her up on divorce a prenup. How does it? Can you have a prenup? I don't know, and I don't know. She's supposed to cook four meals a week. Can you have stuff that is in there that dictates behavior during the marriage or only what is owed at the end of a marriage. I don't know.
00:16:33
Speaker 2: I don't know the answer to that. I've never had a prenup. I've never actually seen a prenup. But there is a question how does raft working? Does it kick in only upon divorce? Would it also be applicable to a death? And look this old trust twenty years ago Malcolm Jamal Warner had seventy percent of his estate going to his mother, fifteen percent going to his dad, and fifteen percent going to his half sister. But again, this was in nineteen Did I see nineteen ninety six? So was it thirty years ago?
00:17:08
Speaker 1: Yes, it was eighty years ago in ninety six, So, I mean, Robes, they and she claims his widow does claim that they were in the process of getting around to updating it. They were in the process, so maybe there is a document, but it wasn't signed. I mean, everybody admits that. I just why Robes and I don't know what the relationship is. And I think there has been stuff said and by some of the family members publicly that suggests there's not a good relationship. But that's your granddaughter over there. Why why not? And again I don't know. Greed and money all this comes in Robes. And I'm not accusing either side of this, but ros that's his legacy, that's his family, that's who he married. Why not like here? Why I just why can't this family? There's some bad blood unfortunately, but there's a nine year old child. She should have everything taken care of in life because her dad set this up for her.
00:18:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, that just gave me chills. You know.
00:18:06
Speaker 2: I think we don't know the state of Chadwick's marriage. We don't know the state of Malcolm Jamal Warner's marriage, but we have to assume that they would have wanted their kids to have had everything they needed. And I do think as sad as this is, this public display of just unfortunate family dynamics just legally being played out. It is a reminder if you are listening, I don't care how old you are, If you have any money and you want it to go to someone specifically, you should run, not walk, to whoever does is state planning in your area, CPA anyone and get a will. And I do believe, I do believe you can write it out on a piece of paper and sign it and put it in your desk drawer and it is legally blind binding. You do not even have to pay someone to draw this up. You actually can put it. You can type it out and sign it and print it, and it can take as little as ten minutes. And it could save a whole lot of heartache and a whole lot of legal mess and a whole lot of in this case, bad publicity that no one wants to read about.
00:19:25
Speaker 1: Just as fans, we would like to think that everything is okay and h just things a bit and hate it. For those guys, well, I know it seems cheeseing. It's cliche, like they're looking down watching this.
00:19:38
Speaker 3: I'm thinking that too though in their grave kind of thing.
00:19:41
Speaker 1: You just likeugh, hate this form and this is not obviously what they wanted. And the Chadwick Boseman move robes, I think really really suggests where his head was about what he wanted to happen. He married her six days ahead.
00:19:55
Speaker 2: He didn't If he hadn't married her, after all this time they were together.
00:19:59
Speaker 1: Nothing his wife would have I had no control, correct of.
00:20:01
Speaker 2: Correct correct, And so there is a reason why he chose to marry her at the very end that to me suggests his wishes. Yes, we don't have a will, but that certainly is a pretty pretty concrete evidence.
00:20:17
Speaker 3: Of what his wishes were at the end.
00:20:20
Speaker 2: And so look, just another reminder everyone just to if you want to avoid this drama in your own family, you can do something about it, and you can do it tonight. And with that, everyone, we appreciate you as always listening to us. I'm made me roboch alongside TJ.
00:20:35
Speaker 3: Holmes. We'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 1: Hey, that folks, it is Wednesday, July twenty second, and really not sure why it stung so much to read the headlines that Malcolm Jamal Warner's widow and Chadwick Boseman's widow are both respectively fighting with the families of their dead husbands, and with that, welcome to this episode of amy, and TJ wrote strangely, this was so sad and upsetting for whatever reason.
00:00:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's now turned into a bizarre coincidence because we first read about I think first we were made aware of Malcolm Jamal Warner's widow and his mother fighting over money. He died a year ago, tragically, drowning on family vacation. Just a sad story to so to hear that headline was just gutting, frankly, And then all of a sudden, a few hours later, the headlines are Chadwick Boseman's widow is now being legally pursued by his own brothers on behalf of their parents, trying to get money again from Chadwick Boseman's estate. So to hear these two prominent actors who died way too soon tragically, who.
00:01:24
Speaker 3: Were beloved beloved.
00:01:27
Speaker 2: By folks, just to hear that now this is what's happened to their respective family.
00:01:33
Speaker 1: Beloved, mainstream, generational, iconic characters that these guys have played. These weren't just two actors. These guys were important to pop culture and will forever be so, quite frankly agreed, So we all adore these two and so ROMs. You want to hope for a Kumbaya moment. You want to think that everybody in the family surrounded the widow and everybody was supporting everybody. But these are not just fights in public spats. No, no, no, no, these are happening in court, folks, And it's just for whatever reason, I guess it happens. And we've seen things like this before. Robes another reminder, gets your affairs in order. Good God.
00:02:14
Speaker 2: And that was one of the takeaways because I had a couple thoughts first off, and we haven't discussed this actually between the two of us. I think we just saved it for the podcast because I have a lot of thoughts here. First of all, it's just so sad that it ends up just being about money, and that just leaves a bad taste in your mouth. These these two men were just incredible actors, highly successful, highly regarded, and they worked really hard to get where they are, to create a certain amount of money to take care of their family, the people they love, and to the idea to think that they could be looking down and seeing their family members fighting one another for the money they worked so hard to amass. It just sucks. There's that part of it. But also the other side of of it is they're just like us. Celebrities are just like us. It doesn't matter how much money you make, how famous you are, what your life may look like from the outside. On the inside where all human beings, there are family problems, family riffs, there's fights over money, there's ego involved, and we're all the same.
00:03:29
Speaker 3: And I just look at that from two different perspectives.
00:03:33
Speaker 1: And both of these cases robes kids are involved, in particular a child, a nine year old child, and both sides happened to be involved. So that we're going to start with Chadwick Boseman. But Chadwick in the case of his family, it's the family suing or taking the court the widow.
00:03:52
Speaker 3: Correct.
00:03:53
Speaker 1: In Malcolm and Jamal Warner's case, it's the widow who is having to take the family to court. Explain here First, what's happening with Chadwick Boseman. His wife is widow, Taylor Ledward is her name. Now, who's involved here? His brothers, Kevin and Dereck Boseman have essentially gone to court on behalf of the parents. They have petitioned to court to have her removed as administrator. They are saying she hasn't properly distributed his assets, also saying that the parents are being denied rights to make decisions about his estate robes. We start with this, he did not have a will.
00:04:28
Speaker 2: And that is the ding Ding ding ding Ding problem. Look, I think when you're as young as he was now. Granted, he had been fighting cancer for four years before his death, and he was fighting it privately, and maybe that was part of his reasoning for not wanting to draw attention to it. But I can tell you when you're at a certain age in your forties and your fifties in the case of Malcolm Jamal Warner in his forties for the case of Chadwick, not a lot of people in those age brackets are thinking about making wills.
00:04:57
Speaker 3: And I can just take this on a personal level.
00:04:59
Speaker 2: I this is a little creepy, but I created a will the night before I went in for my double mistectomy. You start thinking about these things when you start realizing that perhaps you're vulnerable. But I don't know that a lot of people even consider estate planning when you're in your forties and fifties. And so Chadwick Boseman did not have a will.
00:05:20
Speaker 1: I have to wonder where that's weird.
00:05:22
Speaker 3: But he was fighting cancer for years.
00:05:25
Speaker 1: There's no way shocking. He didn't think it was possible he could die.
00:05:29
Speaker 2: Maybe he didn't want to believe he was going to die. And by going and going to look when you go and walk into that office and again I waited until the night before my surgery, and I was shaking, and I was scared, and I just wanted to have my daughters protected. That was where I landed. But it took actually a lot of courage to walk in there. And actually, when you're going to create this will, you're actually admitting I could die. I might die on that operating table. And for him to walk into an estate planner, maybe that was him admitting that he might die and he wasn't willing to do that. But because he wasn't able or chose not to make a will, even though he was battling cancer. This unfortunately is the result, and it's just incredibly sad to see it play out like this. But I do think there's a part of folks who just don't want to believe that they could die, and making a will acknowledges.
00:06:20
Speaker 1: That, you know what, Robes you just I haven't thought about it until this exact moment. Alex Trebec. You know, that was one of the great pleasures in honors of my life, the time I got to spend with him before he died. Robes he was eighty with pancreatic cancer. They had to drag him in to get his affairs in order. He said, he kept putting it off and putting he had pancreatic cancer, baby, and he didn't want to go in and get his affairs to oil. And he was eighty years old.
00:06:51
Speaker 3: Chills.
00:06:51
Speaker 2: Nobody wants to admit that they might die.
00:06:54
Speaker 3: And I just think it's that it's this thing.
00:06:57
Speaker 2: Maybe you're afraid you're gonna jinx it, or you're just just letting your mind go there. It's too hard. And so he didn't have a will. Now he did, and I think this is of note. We don't know what was going on in their marriage and their relationship and within that family dynamic.
00:07:14
Speaker 3: But here he is with.
00:07:17
Speaker 2: Taylor Simone Ledward and I think she goes by Taylor Ledward Boseman.
00:07:21
Speaker 3: I think she hyphenated her name. He married her. I don't think I remembered this four days before he died. Is that?
00:07:27
Speaker 2: Was it? That?
00:07:28
Speaker 1: Within a week? Yes, But I don't remember that being a part of the story.
00:07:31
Speaker 3: I don't either.
00:07:32
Speaker 1: I just used to them being together. They were around, they were together.
00:07:35
Speaker 3: For they had a child together at least a decade.
00:07:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so then the girl, the little one's nine. So yeah, So I didn't think anything out, to be quite honest, Ropes. I was always just thought it was his wife, his wife wife.
00:07:48
Speaker 2: So he marries her, probably when he knows that he is in his final days, and so sure, he didn't go and get his affairs in order. He didn't have a will, but he married her. And that to me, he says a lot, because you know that when you are married, there are certain rights there. They're marital shared assets. And that's where I'm a little confused, because if they were married, they share a child together.
00:08:13
Speaker 3: He dies.
00:08:14
Speaker 2: I know it varies state by state, but it's pretty much a fifty to fifty thing.
00:08:18
Speaker 3: I've never heard of parents unless he.
00:08:21
Speaker 2: Specifically had certain money set aside, and maybe he did this early in his career. I mean, look, different phases of your life, you have different needs and different wants and different desires. And we don't know what he told his parents, what he told his brothers, but he married her, and so I'm just confused why it wouldn't just all be hers and their child.
00:08:44
Speaker 1: It was a situation. There is a court order bro why it was issued. Was it possibly tied to the fact that it was only six days or whatever before that they had been married. Who knows, but there is According to the brothers who have now taken this legal action, have presented to the court that there is a previous order that says that fifty percent of his money goes to the widow, twenty five percent to mom, twenty five percent to dad, and that's how it's supposed to be broken down. The issue they are saying, Robes is that none of that money that's supposed to go to mom and dad has gone to them.
00:09:24
Speaker 2: And the other issue they're claiming, they're saying that she's hiding assets that yes, apparently he supposedly had an estate worth three point eight million. They're claiming that he's had royalties and sag after checks that do come in for actors residuals that amount to maybe as much as three million more dollars, that she's not being transparent about that. They feel their parents are owed.
00:09:49
Speaker 3: Again.
00:09:49
Speaker 2: I'm just trying to get my head around this because when you're in a married couple, and you're right, it was six days before his death.
00:09:55
Speaker 3: They got married.
00:09:56
Speaker 2: I didn't even think parents or siblings or frankly, anyone other than the wife and your child have any legal claim to your money.
00:10:05
Speaker 1: No, unless it's been established in some way with they are presenting it before a court. They're even asking for her to be held in contempt. They're asking for her to be removed as administrator. They're asking for forensic forensic analysis or accountant rather to be brought in. Yeah, robes, they are contempt. That is suggesting that she is violating a order.
00:10:29
Speaker 2: And they also went on to say in this filing that she has blocked his family. This is where it gets ugly and nasty and gross, and I don't know what this is referencing but it just sounds icky that she has blocked Chadwick's family from quote, pursuing lucrative business opportunities that might benefit Chadwick's elderly parents.
00:10:53
Speaker 1: Okay, I know I get it, but it reads like, Hey, we want to make money off of his name and she won't let us.
00:11:00
Speaker 3: That is how it reads.
00:11:01
Speaker 1: You can say it is leal and put it in the nicest term.
00:11:04
Speaker 3: It sounds awful.
00:11:05
Speaker 1: It sounds awful.
00:11:05
Speaker 3: It sounds awful.
00:11:06
Speaker 2: She won't let us use Chadwick's name to make money for our elderly parents.
00:11:12
Speaker 1: And again, I don't know what the circumstances are. I don't know what kind of shape theory, and I don't know how he was taking care of them. And there may be they I'm sure they do. Roald. I want to give everybody a benefit of doubt and some grace that they are doing this.
00:11:24
Speaker 3: With good intents on behalf of their elderly parents.
00:11:28
Speaker 1: But Dan, why they can't work this out with her quietly? There is a legacy here. He means something to all of us. Yeah, we don't want to see this.
00:11:38
Speaker 2: It's just it's like I said, on one hand, it's so tough to see this happening to people who we have put up on a pedestal. And on the other hand, it's a reminder that they're just like us. They have family problems, just like us. They're afraid to make wills, just like many of us. But man, when you aren't willing to take that brave step and acknowledge that yes, you two one day will die, that you one day might die unexpectedly young even and if you don't have your affairs in order, and if you haven't made your wishes known in a legally binding document, this, unfortunately, is what can occur.
00:12:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, we've been talking here about Black Panther. Well stay here, we're going to talk next about Fio Huxtable. Yes, his widow has sued his mom and she has a particular number in mind. One million, two hundred and seventy six thousand, forty two dollars and forty six cents.
00:12:41
Speaker 2: Welcome back, everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ. Well, we'll start now talking about the Malcolm Jamal Warner estate and what's happening with the money that he left behind. Look, this is tough, and he truly died in a shocking accident. This was a drowning death on a family vacation. This was in Costa Rica, correct, last summer, almost exactly one year ago. He died in July of twenty twenty five. And now his widow, and she also they have a child together, is raising their child.
00:13:19
Speaker 3: She is now suing his mom to.
00:13:23
Speaker 2: Recover yes, around one point two million dollars from the family trust because she said they signed a prenup. And look, they were together, and again, he wasn't thinking he was dying or he was going to die. He was fifty four years old, and they had been married for three years, but had been together for a very long time.
00:13:39
Speaker 3: And yes, and look I get it.
00:13:43
Speaker 2: He hadn't gotten around to fulfilling the the line items that he agreed to in their prenup, probably because they were blissfully married and.
00:13:52
Speaker 3: Sharing all their assets.
00:13:54
Speaker 1: So get around.
00:13:55
Speaker 2: Why do you need to go put this amount of money in her account?
00:13:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, I get it. He truly is.
00:14:00
Speaker 2: Basically, I'm sure they were both thinking in the event of a divorce, this would be money that he would owe to her. I mean, that's almost assuredly what it was, because probably they were just dealing with all of the at the bills together. I mean, I'm sure it wasn't an issue of whether or not he was putting it in her account. At that point, they didn't think he was going to be gone. The marriage was probably going well, and she didn't think to ask for the money. So now posthumously she's having to try to get some of that money that she feels she's owed because when he died it reverted back to a document he had made when he was twenty six years old, before he met his wife, before he had a child, when he was a single dude, probably at the height of his fame. He created a trust like a lot of high earners do, to protect his assets, probably from failed relationships, etc. He figured my mom is the safest place, and that's where it went when he died. Uh. Oh, now you've got an issue, right, because now his wife wants that money.
00:15:09
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know. This is a weird one to where what does she do? What does she owed? You have a prenuptial agreement, this is but that agreement doesn't kick in, does it unless you're divorce? Is that fair?
00:15:20
Speaker 2: You know?
00:15:20
Speaker 1: That's a good point, owed, And again, the way she breaks it down is that she he agreed in a life insurance policy of one million dollars. A life insurance policy of a million dollars. He was supposed to as a part of this prenuptial agreement get that for her. He was also supposed to give her sixteen thousand dollars cash she's owed for every anniversary. Now does that mean rogues every year they like it happens live while they're married and happy, or if they get divorced you go back and she's owed sixteen thousand a year for every year they were married. Which way is that supposed to play out?
00:15:52
Speaker 2: You know? I don't know, babe, and I actually had not thought about what you just said out loud.
00:15:57
Speaker 1: Freeing up goes into effect when there's a divorce. Does she have a rite, baby? I don't know. And that's what a court is going to find out. This is something he was supposed to do for her up on divorce a prenup. How does it? Can you have a prenup? I don't know, and I don't know. She's supposed to cook four meals a week. Can you have stuff that is in there that dictates behavior during the marriage or only what is owed at the end of a marriage. I don't know.
00:16:33
Speaker 2: I don't know the answer to that. I've never had a prenup. I've never actually seen a prenup. But there is a question how does raft working? Does it kick in only upon divorce? Would it also be applicable to a death? And look this old trust twenty years ago Malcolm Jamal Warner had seventy percent of his estate going to his mother, fifteen percent going to his dad, and fifteen percent going to his half sister. But again, this was in nineteen Did I see nineteen ninety six? So was it thirty years ago?
00:17:08
Speaker 1: Yes, it was eighty years ago in ninety six, So, I mean, Robes, they and she claims his widow does claim that they were in the process of getting around to updating it. They were in the process, so maybe there is a document, but it wasn't signed. I mean, everybody admits that. I just why Robes and I don't know what the relationship is. And I think there has been stuff said and by some of the family members publicly that suggests there's not a good relationship. But that's your granddaughter over there. Why why not? And again I don't know. Greed and money all this comes in Robes. And I'm not accusing either side of this, but ros that's his legacy, that's his family, that's who he married. Why not like here? Why I just why can't this family? There's some bad blood unfortunately, but there's a nine year old child. She should have everything taken care of in life because her dad set this up for her.
00:18:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, that just gave me chills. You know.
00:18:06
Speaker 2: I think we don't know the state of Chadwick's marriage. We don't know the state of Malcolm Jamal Warner's marriage, but we have to assume that they would have wanted their kids to have had everything they needed. And I do think as sad as this is, this public display of just unfortunate family dynamics just legally being played out. It is a reminder if you are listening, I don't care how old you are, If you have any money and you want it to go to someone specifically, you should run, not walk, to whoever does is state planning in your area, CPA anyone and get a will. And I do believe, I do believe you can write it out on a piece of paper and sign it and put it in your desk drawer and it is legally blind binding. You do not even have to pay someone to draw this up. You actually can put it. You can type it out and sign it and print it, and it can take as little as ten minutes. And it could save a whole lot of heartache and a whole lot of legal mess and a whole lot of in this case, bad publicity that no one wants to read about.
00:19:25
Speaker 1: Just as fans, we would like to think that everything is okay and h just things a bit and hate it. For those guys, well, I know it seems cheeseing. It's cliche, like they're looking down watching this.
00:19:38
Speaker 3: I'm thinking that too though in their grave kind of thing.
00:19:41
Speaker 1: You just likeugh, hate this form and this is not obviously what they wanted. And the Chadwick Boseman move robes, I think really really suggests where his head was about what he wanted to happen. He married her six days ahead.
00:19:55
Speaker 2: He didn't If he hadn't married her, after all this time they were together.
00:19:59
Speaker 1: Nothing his wife would have I had no control, correct of.
00:20:01
Speaker 2: Correct correct, And so there is a reason why he chose to marry her at the very end that to me suggests his wishes. Yes, we don't have a will, but that certainly is a pretty pretty concrete evidence.
00:20:17
Speaker 3: Of what his wishes were at the end.
00:20:20
Speaker 2: And so look, just another reminder everyone just to if you want to avoid this drama in your own family, you can do something about it, and you can do it tonight. And with that, everyone, we appreciate you as always listening to us. I'm made me roboch alongside TJ.
00:20:35
Speaker 3: Holmes. We'll talk to you soon.