Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s Widow Claims He By no means Paid Her $5K A Month As Promised

Tenisha Warner sues her late husband’s mom over a prenup he by no means honored, searching for greater than $1.2M from the household belief.

Malcolm-Jamal Warner wasn’t even within the floor a yr earlier than the authorized battles began. On the one-year anniversary of the actor’s drowning dying, his widow filed a lawsuit towards his mom in a DeKalb County court docket, claiming he by no means lived as much as the phrases of their prenuptial settlement.

Tenisha Warner, 48, took Warner’s mom, Pamela, to court docket Monday, based on the Atlanta Journal-Structure, naming her as successor trustee of the Warner Household Belief the Cosby Present star arrange in 1996.

The lawsuit seeks greater than $1.2 million from that belief, with Tenisha arguing she’s owed the cash as a creditor of his property as a result of her husband didn’t honor the premarital settlement they signed earlier than their marriage.

The prenup laid out an in depth set of economic commitments Warner was supposed to meet. He agreed to take out a $1 million life insurance coverage coverage naming Tenisha as sole beneficiary, together with an identical coverage on her life.

He additionally dedicated to paying her $5,000 a month as his “chief of employees,” handing her $16,000 each anniversary, funding a tax-free retirement account in her title, and sustaining faculty funds for his or her youngsters.

Tenisha claims none of these obligations have been met earlier than he died.

Warner drowned throughout a household trip in Costa Rica on July 20, 2025, after getting caught in a robust present whereas within the water close to Playa Cocles.

Costa Rican authorities confirmed his explanation for dying as unintentional asphyxia by submersion. He was 54 years outdated. AllHipHop lined the affirmation of his explanation for dying and Invoice Cosby’s response on the time.

The timing of the lawsuit carries apparent weight, and Tenisha filed on the precise anniversary of his dying.

The grievance additionally seeks to freeze the belief, asking the court docket to dam Pamela Warner from distributing any belief property whereas the case is pending. Tenisha concurrently filed a creditor’s declare in DeKalb County Probate Courtroom searching for the identical $1,276,042 plus curiosity and authorized charges.

Courtroom paperwork present Warner’s property is presently unrepresented and sure can’t cowl what he owed her by itself.

On the time the settlement was signed, Warner was pulling in an estimated $680,000 a yr and had a web value of roughly $3.4 million.

Tenisha, then a graduate pupil pursuing a doctorate in scientific psychology, had a web value of zero. The submitting notes the couple had been residing collectively at Warner’s properties in Atlanta and Los Angeles and already had a daughter collectively by the point they signed.

Pamela Warner, who lives in California, couldn’t be reached for remark Monday, and Tenisha’s attorneys didn’t reply to press inquiries both.

Tenisha went public together with her identification in September 2025, months after Warner’s dying, sharing a marriage photograph and launching the Warner Household Basis in his honor.

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