What did Malcolm-Jamal Warner say about Bill Cosby allegations? Comments explored as TV dad pays tribute to co-star

American actor, musician, and poet Malcolm-Jamal Warner died at age 54 in Costa Rica on July 20, 2025. According to the BBC, he was swimming at Playa Cocles in Limón Province during a vacation when a strong ocean current pulled him under, causing him to drown.

Bystanders brought him to shore, and the local Red Cross tried to revive him, but he was pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities later confirmed the cause of death as drowning.

In the wake of the tragedy, actor-comedian Bill Cosby mourned Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s demise, saying it reminded him of his own son Ennis’ death. Cosby was his onscreen father from The Cosby Show from 1984 to 1992.

Earlier, during a January 2023 interview with journalist Jemele Hill, Warner addressed the sexual assault allegations against Bill Cosby from dozens of women over the years beginning in 2014. The now-late actor said that neither could he defend his TV dad, nor could he “throw him under the bus.”

“I can’t defend him or his actions at all. But I also can’t throw him under the bus completely,” 'The Resident' actor noted.

Malcolm-Jamal Warner is survived by his wife and daughter.

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Exploring further Malcolm-Jamal Warner's remarks on Bill Cosby's allegations

During the fourth season of Jemele Hill Is Unbothered, the host asked Malcolm-Jamal Warner whether he was ever “resentful” towards Bill Cosby after multiple sexual misconduct allegations surfaced against him and whether it “impacted” him.

“No… Not resentment, because it just, it drove home… I get how this business works. For one, and there are so many… just that whole situation is so layered, man…” Malcolm-Jamal Warner said.

He added that he’ll “never say anything” because he had an “understanding of all the layers, and it’s so complex.”

“There are so many shades of grey that most people will never get,” Malcolm-Jamal continued, before admitting that Cosby’s legal troubles affected him “financially” when the ratings for The Cosby Show fell. However, it hadn’t “really affected my career.”

“We set up this life after the show so my life would not be dependent on that show, uh, or dependent upon the field,” Warner shared about moving on from the show years back with his mother and team.

Elsewhere, the Malcolm and Eddie star admitted that it “truly sucked” to watch “the ship go down the way it went down,” adding he was grateful for the viewers who still chose to treat the show as it is, without letting Bill Cosby’s allegations affect their love for it.

“It’s a timeless show… an iconic show, still an important show, um, the effect that it had on um black people worldwide, uh, can never be taken away… There’s still so much to be proud of in terms of that legacy, but at the same time, you know I moved on a long time ago,” he concluded.

Now, in the aftermath of Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s death, Cosby’s representative Andrew Wyatt told E! Online that the news was “just as devastating to him as when he learned of his own son Ennis Cosby’s 1997 murder, which was a result of a failed robbery attempt.”

Wyatt went on that Cosby recalled his late son and Malcolm-Jamal Warner “playing together as children,” and that “they were amazing together.”

“Warner created a lasting impact through his life and work that will continue to change the world, just as he did as part of the Huxtable family on the NBC sitcom,” the rep added.

Malcolm-Jamal Warner played the role of Theodore “Theo” Huxtable on The Cosby Show for 8 years between 1984 and 1992. During a 2023 interview, he shared that he was “literally the last person” who auditioned for the role of Theo, which later earned him Emmy nominations.

The Cosby Show aired on NBC for eight seasons and was created by Bill Cosby, Ed. Weinberger, and Michael J. Leeson. Cosby starred as Cliff Huxtable, the father of an upper-middle-class Black family in Brooklyn, New York.

Since 2014, many networks stopped airing reruns due to assault allegations against Cosby.

Edited by Divya Singh