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Chadwick Boseman’s widow recalls hope and faith after his 2016 colon cancer diagnosis
The 'Black Panther' star kept his illness private, focusing on work and life with courage
Chadwick Boseman’s widow, Simone Ledward Boseman, has opened up about their hope and faith following his colon cancer diagnosis in 2016.
Speaking on Today, Simone said that both she and Chadwick were “very confident” he would overcome the disease.
“To us, it was going to be a challenging moment, but something that he would come out on the other side of and be fine. And they would do a surgery, and he would do some chemo afterward, and he would be OK,” she recalled.
“And there wasn’t much talk at all of the possibility of him not being OK on the other side of that.”
Reflecting on that period, Simone admitted that even considering the possibility of loss felt “like a betrayal of faith,” adding that she now wishes they could have discussed it more openly.
“There are a lot of moments where I look back on that time and wish that we had been able to find a way to talk about that,” she said.
Simone also shared how sudden the diagnosis had seemed. “I didn’t know that he was experiencing anything until he had already been to the doctor twice. It all seemed to come about very suddenly. It was a matter of weeks that he started not feeling well,” she explained.
Chadwick, who passed away in 2020 at the age of 43, deliberately kept his illness private. Simone emphasized that he did not want his work compromised or to be treated differently because of his diagnosis.
“The work is what was keeping him moving, so he didn’t want the work to suffer just because he was sick,” she said. “He didn’t want to be handled with kid gloves because people thought he wasn’t going to be able to do his job.”
Nearly six years later, Simone said grief has softened in some ways, though the pain remains.
“The edges get less sharp, I think, is the best way to put it. There are still edges, and there are still a lot of painful moments. But it becomes easier to find the love in those moments, as well. You become more accustomed to carrying the weight of grief. But it doesn’t go away.”
