Chadwick Boseman‘s widow Simone Ledward Boseman openly spoke about grieving the Black Panther actor in her first interview over two years after his death. “It has been the most challenging two years I’ve ever had in my life,” Simone told Whoopi Goldberg on Good Morning America on Tuesday, November 1. This marked Simone’s first sit-down interview since Chadwick’s death at the age of 43 years old after a four-year battle with colon cancer in August 2020.
.@ABC EXCLUSIVE: “I can’t believe that I was so lucky. I can’t believe that I got to love this person. And I also got them to love me too.”
Simone Ledward Boseman reflects on her late husband Chadwick Boseman in an interview with @WhoopiGoldberg. https://t.co/s6gZWJx1Ad pic.twitter.com/ELhG4DxeDC
— Good Morning America (@GMA) November 1, 2022
Simone explained to Whoopi, 66, why they kept Chadwick’s health issues a secret until his passing. “It was COVID, when things were really starting to spiral, and that meant that everybody was in their house and there was no pressure for anybody to go outside,” she said. “It seemed like…is this a crazy coincidence that we get to actually be inside? We get to be here with family, together, and everybody in the world is also experiencing this togetherness in the midst of this awful, scary, unpredictable time. Our circle was basically a dot.”
Chadwick’s widow admitted that she has still has good days and bad days as she continues to grieve the loss of her husband. “Some days I’m doing worse than I’m really willing to acknowledge and other days I’m doing better than I feel comfortable admitting. The grief really moves in,” Simone explained. She also gushed over the love she and Chadwick shared, telling Whoopi, “I can’t believe that I was so lucky. I can’t believe that I got to love this person. And I also got them to love me too.”
Chadwick and Simone were only married for a few months before the actor’s death. The first time Chadwick mentioned his love publicly was at the 2019 NAACP Image Awards, when he won Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture for his role in Black Panther. When his name was announced, they sweetly kissed before he went up to the stage. “Simone, you’re with me every day,” he said. “I have to acknowledge you right now. Love you.” The camera panned to her and she blew him a kiss and mouthed “I love you.”
At the virtual 2021 Golden Globe Awards, Chadwick posthumously won for his role in Netflix’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and Simone graciously accepted the award on his behalf. She was emotional as she delivered a moving speech that touched everyone watching. “He would say something beautiful; something inspiring, something that would amplify that little voice inside of all of us that tells you, you can. That tells you to keep going,” she said about Chadwick. Simone also accepted Chadwick’s posthumous Emmy Award in Sept. 2022 for his voice role in Marvel’s What If…?