Remembering Chadwick Boseman: Five Years On
Simone Ledward Boseman reflects on the five years since the passing of her husband, actor and writer Chadwick Boseman.
“The edges of grief get less sharp over time,”she says.
“Five years definitely feels like a marker. I’ve had to gradually figure out how I talk about Chad. What do I want to share, and what do I feel comfortable sharing? Can I find something that I might want to share in the midst of something I don’t want to share?”We connected via video call at 9am in California, where she resides.
“Except for my mom, I’m not talking to anybody before 10am,”she laughs. She made an exception to give this rare interview ahead of the UK premiere of her late husband’s play Deep Azure, currently in previews at Shakespeare’s Globe in London.
The Global Shock of Chadwick Boseman’s Death
When Boseman’s death was announced in late August 2020, it shocked the world. At only 43 years old, he was just becoming widely known. The 2018 release of Black Panther, where he portrayed T’Challa, had catapulted him to global stardom as the first Black superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Prior to that, he was a successful Hollywood actor, but now a megastar. The news was especially startling because the family had not disclosed his battle with colorectal cancer.
Boseman’s diagnosis in 2016 had been kept private.
“Something like a cancer diagnosis can get in the way of a lot of things,”Ledward Boseman explains. Despite treatment, he continued working, filming seven movies including Black Panther, and attending numerous public events.
“He never wanted to be treated differently. A lot of the roles he did were so physical, and he still wanted to do them. He did not want to be judged by what he was experiencing. He didn’t want his diagnosis to interfere with the work.”
Protecting Privacy Amid Growing Public Interest
During their six years together, public interest in Boseman grew, and by extension, so did curiosity about Ledward Boseman. She acknowledges that curiosity often comes from genuine concern but warns about the risks of information spreading inaccurately.
“When you’re in a position like Chad’s, everything you’re doing has to be protected. You just have to be careful who you tell your plans to,”she says.
“And if you are someone who only wants to have deep, meaningful relationships and conversations, you very quickly come to find that your circle is going to be small because you can’t have those conversations with very many people.”
Only a few close family members and friends knew about Boseman’s health, along with her therapist and her mother.
“The circle became a dot.”
To the public, signs of his illness were subtle. In April 2020, during lockdown, Boseman hosted an Instagram Live to announce #Operation42, a $4.2 million donation of PPE to hospitals serving African American communities hardest hit by Covid-19. Fans noted his dramatic weight loss in the comments, but speculation was neither confirmed nor denied and soon faded amid lockdown restrictions limiting public appearances.
How They Met and Early Relationship
The couple first met at the Hollywood Bowl in August 2014. Ledward Boseman was working as an events executive, and Boseman was performing a duet with D’Angelo for a James Brown tribute concert, marking the US release of the biopic Get On Up, in which he starred as Brown. She approached him to ask about his travel arrangements.
“He looked up at me with puppy dog eyes!”she recalls with a giggle, though she admits they playfully disagreed about the details. She says he struggled to speak initially, while he claimed he was calm and collected.
When Boseman returned for soundcheck the next day, Ledward Boseman had made an effort to look nice.
“I was making an effort to look a little pretty for him; I felt there was maybe a spark,”she admits. Despite expecting a diva, she found him charming with a big laugh and smile. He flirted respectfully, cautious not to overstep in front of her bosses. After the performance, he took her hand and asked if he could call her. Their first date was in Franklin Village, Los Angeles, with dinner at La Poubelle followed by pool at the Bourgeois Pig. They continued dating, moving in together two years later, eventually settling in a house near their first date location.
Public Attention and Challenges of Mixed Heritage
Their relationship was private but became more public with Boseman’s MCU debut as T’Challa in Captain America: Civil War. This increased attention was not always positive. During a visit to Howard University, Ledward Boseman was warned she might have to
“defend her Blackness”due to her mixed heritage—her mother is African American and her father Hawaiian-Japanese. She recalls being criticized online after Black Panther for her heritage, with some pitting her relationship with Boseman against his on-screen relationship with Lupita Nyong’o.
Simone Ledward Boseman’s Background and Spirituality
Born the youngest of two siblings in Vallejo, California, Ledward Boseman was raised in a conservative religious community, primarily by her mother after her parents divorced when she was three. She recalls fond childhood memories traveling with her mother, a flight attendant, to destinations like London and Germany.
“It was really special – my mom and I are really close.”
Her religious upbringing initially discouraged higher education outside ministry work. She planned to become an ultrasound technician for practical reasons but later discovered a music industry studies course at California Polytechnic State University, reigniting a childhood dream of becoming a singer. She stopped practicing her faith before moving to Los Angeles to study and lived there for ten years, during which she met Boseman. She explains her departure from organized religion carefully, respecting her mother’s devoutness.
“The issue I take with most organised religions is the way God is presented as something separate from you. I just don’t to that. I believe that God, quite literally, is love, which is what Scripture says.”
Grieving in the Public Eye
After Boseman’s death, there was a global outpouring of love. As his widow, Ledward Boseman felt pressure to grieve publicly but chose to maintain privacy regarding his illness.
“I’m sure there was [anger from people who felt left out],”she says.
“It’s normal to have questions but I just said, ‘If Chad didn’t talk to you about it, I’m not going to talk to you about it.’”
She has made few public appearances since, mostly accepting awards on Boseman’s behalf for his final film, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
“Those first two years were the most challenging of my life,”she reflects.
“When you lose someone dear to you, two years might as well be two days. The shock of it. The shock of losing that person. For a year I was still waking up, having to remember. And just completely not knowing what to do with myself. The only reason I got out of bed was because I have a dog.”They adopted a giant schnauzer named Sophia in May 2020, whose protective bark can be heard during our conversation.
Protecting and Honoring Chadwick Boseman’s Legacy
Ledward Boseman has grappled with how to carry forward her husband’s legacy while still grieving.
“There was a real swirling of feelings going on and pressures to make decisions about what his legacy would be. How do you know, while you’re still grieving? How do you know what is important to talk about and what’s not important to talk about? I’m figuring out how to step into the role I am in now while dealing with the reality that I don’t have the one person I want to talk to who can help me through all this. Also, I had just turned 30.”Boseman died just days before her birthday. She speaks slowly and with pauses, her voice occasionally unsteady.
“So my response was: I’m not talking to nobody and I’m not doing nothing, which is another lesson I learned from Chad. Two, actually – he taught me that I can’t always be nice. You can always be respectful, but you can’t always be nice. He also taught me that sometimes ‘no’ is a full sentence and sometimes silence is the most eloquent response.”
Her guiding principle is clear:
“I don’t have to create his legacy, I just have to protect it,”she says.
“I just have to make sure that it doesn’t get flattened. That’s why I love talking about him – I think it’s important that people understand him as a full human being, that they get the full picture of who he was.”
This was notably reflected in the 2022 release of the Black Panther sequel, Wakanda Forever. The decision was made not to recast T’Challa, and the script was rewritten to explain his absence and honor Boseman’s life. Ledward Boseman was in contact with writer-director Ryan Coogler throughout. When asked about Nakia’s speech near the film’s end, she says:
“He was King and Black Panther to everyone. But to me, he was everything. My T’Challa.”She confirms Coogler consulted her about the scene, and she contributed only the addition of his name being spoken.
Advocacy and Awareness for Colorectal Cancer
In March 2023, Ledward Boseman spoke at the White House advocating for those affected by colorectal cancer. She remains cautious about focusing solely on Boseman’s illness.
“I never want his life story to be distilled down to the way that he died. I want his life to be about the way that he lived.”She is becoming more vocal about the disparities Black communities face regarding cancer knowledge and resources.
“Chad’s case was not unique, and I was shocked to find out that information. Livid.”Connecting with others who understand the experience has been healing, and she recognizes her presence helps others.
“I wanted to approach this group not as the partner of a famous person, but as a widow who had lost her husband to colorectal cancer. I felt for the first time part of this community.”
Revival of Deep Azure at Shakespeare’s Globe
This week, Boseman’s play Deep Azure is being revived for a nine-week run at Shakespeare’s Globe in London. It is the largest professional production since Boseman first staged it over 20 years ago. The play explores the aftermath of the death of an unarmed Black man, Deep, killed by a police officer. This mirrors a real-life event Boseman experienced while at Howard University, where his friend Prince Jones was killed by a Black police officer in 2000. Director Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu explains:
“It’s about what’s happening to the characters and how they’re dealing with their grief both individually and collectively. Survival is demanded of us, but how do we get there?”The production offers a poetic context for exploring Black grief following Boseman’s untimely death.
Fynn-Aiduenu discovered the script while researching hip-hop theatre in 2020 and learned of Boseman’s connections to UK theatre and Shakespeare. Boseman studied Shakespeare at Balliol College, Oxford, through the British American Drama Academy, funded by Denzel Washington and facilitated by Phylicia Rashad, a mentor during his time at Howard. The director states:
“I want audiences to celebrate and be inspired by the multifaceted life of Chadwick Boseman, which includes his playwriting. I want to create a safe space in which to explore Black communal grief.”
Ledward Boseman did not read the play until after Boseman’s death. It has only been professionally performed once before, in 2005 by Congo Square Theatre Company in Chicago.
“I think, like most artists, sometimes it can be hard to share things that are from so long ago because it doesn’t always feel like they still represent who you are now as an artist. And then after he passed, it was really difficult to read the play. To see him. In the end, it was incredibly healing for me, but I had to take it in very small steps.”She has helped approve edits for the London production to contextualize it for British audiences but has not finished reading the script, partly to preserve the surprise, and partly because Boseman often kept project details secret so she could experience them fresh as an audience member.
“Not reading all of the play is my way of continuing to honour that tradition.”
Memories of Their Best Year Together
Ledward Boseman recalls 2018 as their best year. Black Panther grossed $1.3 billion on its initial release, breaking box office records and opening theaters in countries where movies had been banned for decades.
“He had worked so hard to make it what it was. And it was this full circle moment in his life where he got to use so much knowledge that he had been gathering over the last two decades in this film. A beautiful, beautiful moment,”she says.
More importantly, Boseman was cancer-free for most of that year.
“We had to lean on each other so heavily, and we got so close. And, oh my God – he was just so beautiful! He’d been doing all those Black Panther workouts and he was just, so fine!”She emphasizes the word to convey his attractiveness.
Remission brought renewed zest for life.
“Imagine you’re ready to live a hundred times beyond what you’ve already been doing. Our appreciation for each other, his appreciation for his own time – it was just a really, really beautiful year. We were travelling, seeing the world, and we were so in love.”At year’s end, the cancer returned and progressed, leaving them balancing pragmatism and faith.
“To acknowledge what might happen almost felt like a betrayal of that faith. So there wasn’t any talk around him not making it.”
Ledward Boseman expresses regret about not discussing end-of-life matters more openly.
“Sometimes I wish we had been able to talk about those things, so that he could even start to dream about it – and look at death with less fear. I would have liked to be more comfortable asking him what he wanted. Not just for himself, but for me, for his family. When we did talk about it, he told me it made him happy to know we were going to be OK.”
Marriage and Final Years
The couple began discussing marriage after Boseman’s diagnosis in 2016, when they were hopeful.
“It was all full steam ahead, but then he started to express some concerns about the ‘what ifs’. They’re such hard conversations to have – but I had to explain that it wasn’t going to hurt less if we weren’t married.”They became engaged in autumn 2019, after which Boseman’s health declined rapidly. Marriage was a priority for him. Ledward Boseman describes their wedding day as difficult.
“We found a way to celebrate in the midst of all this sadness, and hopelessness, and grief.”The ceremony was small, with her sister helping her prepare and her parents walking her down the aisle.
Life Beyond Chadwick Boseman’s Legacy
Ledward Boseman is clear that her life is not solely defined by her husband’s legacy.
“He would be upset if I made my life about his life.”She recently moved back to Vallejo to be near family and is developing her first business venture, a neighborhood wine bar. She is also pursuing a music career under the name sahn, performing across the US including at the Apollo Music Café in New York. Her second album, the garden, is scheduled for release in May.
“From the point I met Chad, it’s been hard to talk about myself and my work without talking about him. He just changed my whole life and my perspective of my life – he was my most important spiritual teacher. My mother laid the foundation for my spirituality and my artistic practice, but Chad expanded that view astronomically.”
She enjoys speaking about Boseman because it keeps his memory alive.
“I love knowing that he lived and his spirit still does. I love being able to commune with him in the spirit now, which is the hardest thing about grief – trying to rebuild a connection you once had in the physical that you now only have in the spiritual. There’s this poem that I read very early on that speaks about continuing to say their name –”She pauses to locate the poem Death is Nothing at All by Henry Scott Holland, then reads:
“Call me by the old familiar name. Speak of me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference in your tone. Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.”
