Actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner Chose to Keep His Wife and Daughter out of the Public Eye

Over the years, actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner was pretty tight-lipped about his relationships, including his marriage.

Malcolm — who first rose to fame as Theo on The Cosby Show — first revealed that he was off the market in 2017, when he took to Instagram to announce that he was becoming a father. Who is the mother of his only child? Here's what we know about his wife.

As of this writing, the identity of Malcolm's wife remains a mystery, as her face wasn’t revealed in their pregnancy announcement — or, ever since then, for that matter — but the New York Daily News reported that the woman is a Connecticut-based attorney.

Unfortunately, Malcom passed away in July 2025 at the age of 54. He was on vacation in Costa Rica with his family. A cause of death has yet to be revealed, but a source told People that he drowned while swimming. He is survived by his wife and daughter, whom he purposefully kept out of the public eye.

Malcolm has been in not one, not two, but three pretty serious relationships with fellow actors.

Early in his career, he had a romance with Family Matters star Michelle Thomas. On The Cosby Show, Michelle starred as Justine, Theo’s girlfriend, but they also had an offscreen romance. The couple lasted for 10 years before their relationship came to an abrupt end.

Sadly, in 1998, news outlets reported that Michelle had died of stomach cancer.

He started dating his former Cosby Show co-star Karen Malina White in 2000. After they broke up in 2007, he was single for a while. Later, he started a relationship with Watchmen star Regina King.

The two reportedly dated for two years before they parted ways in 2013.

“I believe the universe has a plan, and we probably wouldn’t have been ready years ago,” Regina said of her then-boyfriend in a 2012 interview with Parade. “We both had to do whatever we had to do to be ready for each other now.”

In a 2013 interview with Sister 2 Sister, Malcolm opened up about their split.

“Well, I mean, you try not to date in the spotlight,” he told the outlet (per WTLC FM). “We had been together for several years before people realized we were together.”

“So unfortunately our breakup got more coverage than our being together, and that kind of sucked ‘cause we spent so much time trying to keep it out of the public eye, and then the breakup was so much in the public eye,” the actor recalled. “All relationships have their share of obstacles, and you just try not to have yours plastered.” Following his split from Regina, Malcolm vowed to take a hiatus from dating. His wife was the first (semi) public relationship he had since that breakup.