Chadwick Boseman’s widow, Simone Ledward Boseman, spoke about her late husband in her first interview since his death for Tuesday’s episode of “Good Morning America.” Her conversation with Whoopi Goldberg covered his life, legacy and ailing health during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
“It has been the most challenging two years I’ve ever had in my life,” Simone told “GMA.” “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.”
“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?’” she continued.
Simone met Chadwick in 2014 after he portrayed James Brown in “Get On Up.” He was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer two years later. Simone said they kept a tight circle during the pandemic and married shortly before his death on Aug. 28, 2020.
“I can’t believe that I was so lucky,” Simone said. “I can’t believe that I got to love this person. And I also got them to love me too.”
The public was unaware of Chadwick’s ailing health while he rose to worldwide fame as T’Challa in “Black Panther” in 2018. Its sequel, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” which director Ryan Coogler nearly abandoned when Chadwick died, is scheduled to hit theaters Nov. 11.
“I met this person who is this wonderful man and then ended up being a global superstar,” Simone told Goldberg. “And really after ‘Black Panther’ came out, it did kind of happen overnight.”
Chadwick’s alma mater, Howard University, has since renamed its College of Fine Arts and created a scholarship program in his name, according to People.
“We have four scholars,” Simone told Goldberg. “One of them graduated this past year, and was very proud to be the first graduating Boseman scholar of the first graduating class of the Chadwick Boseman College of Fine Arts.”
The South Carolina-born actor spent his youth practicing martial arts and basketball before studying theater at Howard and Oxford, according to Rolling Stone. While Chadwick gave acting his all, his wife still misses the man behind the “Black Panther” mask.
“Some days I’m doing worse than I’m really willing to acknowledge,” she said. “And other days I’m doing better than I feel comfortable admitting. You know, grief really — it moves in.”
