Regina King Once Said the “Universe” Brought Her and Malcolm-Jamal Warner Together

Actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner played an exceptionally significant role in Hollywood. Before he unexpectedly passed away on July 20, 2025, due to asphyxia while swimming in Costa Rica, he was one of the most beloved child stars in pop culture history as Theo on The Cosby Show.

Throughout his successful career as an actor and later as a director and producer, Malcolm received attention for his love life. While he kept his last relationship with his wife and their daughter's identity private, he had a few public relationships, including one with fellow child star-turned director, Oscar winner Regina King.

Regina and Malcolm's relationship was a nostalgic dream come true for their fans, though it didn't last as long as many had hoped. Here's the scoop on their relationship timeline.

Regina and Malcolm had known each other as friends for a long time before they decided to take things to the next level. Their careers began flourishing around the same time, with Malcolm thriving as Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show and Regina landing her breakout role as Brenda Jenkins on 227. However, they didn't start dating until nearly 30 years after entering the limelight, and they confirmed their relationship in 2011.

Although they had no problem with the public knowing they were together and were often spotted on the red carpet, neither Malcolm nor Regina discussed their relationship publicly. In a 2011 interview with BET News, the Malcolm & Eddie star shared why they preferred keeping their personal lives as private as possible.

"I think Regina and I are both of the philosophy that we keep our private lives private," Malcolm explained. "All relationships go through all kinds of peaks and valleys."

"And I think it’s unfortunate — when you live in the public eye, of course, your peaks and valleys are going to be heavily scrutinized," he continued. "So we just kind of prefer to protect what we have going on because relationships are work, anyway. We don’t need the rest of the world in our Kool-Aid. So we like to protect what we have because it’s very special and very precious. We’d like to keep it out of everybody’s hands and visions. But I will say that it’s a relationship that makes all the sense in the world."

While Regina was also private about her and Malcolm's courtship, she shared a profound take on the timing of them getting together. In 2012, the Poetic Justice actor said she felt that they needed to experience life for themselves before deciding to become more than friends.

"I believe the universe has a plan, and we probably wouldn’t have been ready years ago," Regina told Parade of her and Malcolm (via Us Weekly). "We both had to do whatever we had to do to be ready for each other now."

Before they got together, Regina married record producer Ian Alexander, Sr., and had a son, Ian Jr., who was born in 1996. Malcolm was also romantically linked to his Cosby Show co-star Karen Malina White and was in a public engagement with Family Matters star Michelle Thomas before she passed away of stomach cancer in 1998.

After two years of dating and living together, Malcolm and Regina left fans heartbroken when they decided to call it quits. The couple initially didn't discuss their breakup, but the Watchmen star shut down any rumors that there was any bad blood between them.

"Hey everybody PLEASE don't believe everything you read," Regina wrote on X (formerly Twitter) in 2013. "Me & @MalcolmJamalWar are good. Life happens. Forward motion. Godspeed."

Despite their willingness to keep the details of their breakup to themselves, Regina hinted two years later that the romance didn't end well. She shared with Us Weekly in 2015 that she once had an ex who broke up with her on Valentine's Day and implied Malcolm was the one who dumped her.

"Someone broke up with me on Valentine’s. D—k!" Regina said. "Yeah. I’m serious. Then he actually sent me flowers that said, ‘I still love you,’ and I threw the flowers in the trash, and he was upset that I threw them in the trash, and I was like, ‘F--k you.’”

She later added she didn't name any names because "They'll know" who the culprit was if she went into any more details.

While many were able to read between the lines, neither Regina nor Malcolm confirmed that the Valentine's Day letdown had happened, and they seemingly remained friendly until he died. Regina, who also lost her son, Ian Alexander, Jr., in January 2022, didn't address her ex's death.