Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s mom is “at peace” following her son’s fatal drowning, but she said learning of the news was a traumatic experience.
Speaking to Robin Roberts on Tuesday’s episode of “Good Morning America,” Pamela Warner opened up about how she’s doing since the actor passed away in July.
Detailing that she let out a scream from the “bottom of [her] soul” that had neighbors running to her home, she recounted, “What came up and what came out was huge. It was an indescribable pain that resonated through my body.”
Despite the immense agony, Pamela insisted she is “at peace with everything that happened” and finds comfort in knowing that it was simply “his time.”
“That was the manner in which he was to transition, and this is what I believe and what I feel,” she told Roberts.
She also reminisced on the deep conversations they had throughout the years, adding, “I’m very grateful that I was chosen to be his mother.”
Pamela continued, “I think more than anything, I’m at peace with everything that happened. There was nothing left on the table.
“There was no shoulda, coulda woulda. ‘I wish I would have said this, I wish I would have done this.’ I don’t have that. I feel that our journey together as mother and son was complete.”
During the interview, Pamela also clarified some conflicting reports about the “Cosby Show” star’s death.
She shut down claims that Malcolm-Jamal died while trying to save his daughter, saying, “She was on shore. She was not in the water.”
Instead, she explained that when the actor was in the water at a beach in Limon, Costa Rica, with a friend, they were both caught in an undertow.
“They were in the water waist-deep, and there was an undertow. My son was not an experienced swimmer; he did not know how to deal with an undertow,” Pamela said, noting that his friend was able to “rescue himself.”
Pamela also gave an update on how her son’s widow and their daughter are doing months after his death.
“Children process differently,” Pamela said about her granddaughter. “She watched them resuscitate him, try to resuscitate him. She saw that, and I know that’s awfully, awfully traumatic.”
She added, “She loved her father dearly. She adored Papa. He was Papa. And so they’re both in deep grief.”
This is not the first time Pamela has addressed her son’s death. In August, she took to his Instagram, which has been turned into a tribute page, to share a similar sentiment.
She wrote in part, “Malcolm was birthed through water and transitioned through water. This was his time. His mission on earth had been completed.”
Malcolm-Jamal died on July 20 after drowning on a family vacation in Costa Rica. He was 54.
Police then revealed the actor had been “caught by a high current” while swimming on a beach in Limon.
Bystanders worked to get Malcolm-Jamal ashore, but by the time the Costa Rican Red Cross arrived and tried to revive him, he was pronounced dead at the scene.
There were no lifeguards on the beach at the time, and officials said the drowning happened “very quickly.”
Malcolm-Jamal’s official cause of death was listed as asphyxiation by “submersion.”
His widow, Tenisha Warner, recently broke her silence — and revealed her identity — with a sweet Instagram tribute.
Sharing a never-before-seen wedding photo, she announced the launch of the Warner Family Foundation and River & Ember alongside their daughter.
“I can still hear my husband’s laugh, still feel the way he made room for every part of me — every tear, every dream,” she wrote.
“Today, in his honor, my daughter and I are launching River & Ember and officially opening 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 concluded the post, “This is love. Still moving. Still making. Still carrying us forward.”