Chadwick Bosemen’s widow, Simone Ledward Boseman broke down in tears on TV as she gushed about how “lucky” she was to love the actor.
In an interview with Good Morning America, Simone, 31, sat down with The View host, Whoopi, 66, to discuss her and Chadwick’s five-year romance, including how they met and the moment he made the first move on her, as well as his secret fight with colon cancer, how they kept it hidden from the world, and how she has dealt with the tragic loss.
She said: “I can’t believe that I was so lucky, I can’t believe that I got to love this person. And I also got him to love me too.”
Simone, who worked at the Hollywood Bowl, first met the Black Panther star in 2014, when he attended a James Brown tribute concert at the venue. And according to Simone, he made it known that he was interested in her pretty much right away.
“We were on the side of the stage at a certain point, and I guess he didn’t know if I was really catching his hints. And he just randomly bent down and untied one of my shoelaces … as a little joke” she recalled.
“And I said, ‘Oh, OK, so this is flirting, this is him flirting with me.’ And then he got back down and said, ‘Oh, I’m sorry.’ He got back down, and he retied my shoelace.”
She added that she “fell for him pretty quickly,” after she “came to a realization that she could trust him,” and that she was drawn to his “thoughtfulness.”
She said: “He was so intentional. He did not go into anything with his eyes closed.
“And I knew that I could follow him off the edge of a cliff because he’s got a plan, you know?
“I think when I really realized that, it was like, ‘OK. This is it. We’re not going anywhere. I’m in it. He’s in it.’
“He was just the smartest, most caring, most genuine, most just real, authentic, truth in everything – like nobody that I had ever met.”
They got engaged in October 2019, and married in secret sometime before his death in August 2020.
Though Chadwick had already starred in a slew of movies and TV shows when they met, like Lincoln Heights, Persons Unknown, and Get on Up, she recalled him becoming a “global superstar” practically “overnight” after he starred in Marvel’s Black Panther in 2018.
She said: “I met this person who was this wonderful man, and he then ended up being a global superstar. After Black Panther came out, it did kind of happen overnight.”
She continued: “Sure, he was an actor… but he was an artist.
“He was an artist, and he was a leader and he was a king. And that I got to be by his side for that – that he chose me to be by his side for that is just – it’s the greatest blessing.
“Even with the pain of his loss, now I still get to have this beautiful spirit relationship with him.
“And that, while it’s difficult to accept, is also beautiful because he’s an ancestor now. He is and he is never leaving me.”
According to Simone, they had to be “very, very careful” in order to keep Chadwick’s colon cancer battle a secret from the world.
“There was always some level of concern, but we really do have a very, very trusted circle of people that were there to support him, and support me, and help us, you know, do the best that we could with the challenging time,” she said.
She said Chadwick never liked to let anyone see him sweat, but that his internal struggles were sometimes worse than his physical ones.
“I think that like any human person, we all have fear, we all have doubt – we want to know that we’re doing the right thing,” she explained.
“And I think that there were a lot of times for him where he felt like he didn’t have someone that could give him the answers.
“But that is really a lifelong lesson in knowing that the answers don’t exist outside of yourself – that you’re the only one with the answers.”
She added that his biggest fear was “wondering if he was going to have enough time to do all the work he wanted to do.”
She said he also felt immense pressure since so many people looked up to him – including his fans and his friends, too.
“He knew how many people depended on him for his advice – he was the person everybody went to, and I’m sure that was exhausting for him,” said Simone.
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