Simone Boseman Reflects On The 2 "Challenging Years" Since Chadwick Died

When Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opens nationwide next week, it’ll do so without star Chadwick Boseman, who passed away from colon cancer in August 2020. On Nov. 2, the late star’s wife Simone Ledward Boseman gave her first interview since his passing, talking to Whoopi Goldberg on Good Morning America about his legacy and her ongoing grief, calling it the “most challenging two years” of her life.

Simone, who married Chadwick before he passed away in 2020, stated that his health began to spiral during the lockdown, which was his fourth year of battling the illness. Chadwick wanted to keep his declining health a secret, which made his passing a shock to his fans, but Simone shared that the lockdown helped their family deal with his declining health. “It seemed like, ‘Is this a crazy coincidence?’” she remembered of that time. “That we get to actually be inside, we get to be here with family, you know, together, and everybody in the world is also experiencing this togetherness in the midst of this awful, scary, unpredictable time.”

Simone admitted that her feelings about coping with the loss fluctuate. “Some days, I'm doing worse than I'm really willing to acknowledge. Other days, I'm doing better than I feel comfortable admitting,” she said. Through her grief, she is also struck by her fortune of meeting and building a life with Chadwick. “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,” she said.

The Black Panther actor’s legacy will not only live on through Simone but also at his alma mater Howard University where the College of Fine Arts was renamed in his honor. A scholarship in his name has also been established to aid students pursuing a career in the arts. “We have four scholars. 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,” Simone shared, adding that she is “taking this mantle and we are carrying it to as many voices as we can.”