Malcolm-Jamal Warner death: Late actor's mum shares details about her son's death

Malcolm, who was best known for his role as Theodore Huxtable on The Cosby Show, drowned off the coast of Costa Rica in July.

The star was pulled back to a shore by a volunteer lifeguard and another surfer ans given 45 minutes of CPR, but could not be saved. At the time, the Forensic Pathology Department ruled Warner's death as accidental and his official cause of was declared as "asphyxation by submersion".

But any more precise details about his fatal accident were not known. Now, Pamela has given more information, explaining that his son had been in Costa Rica for three weeks with his family prior to his death and he was swimming with a man on the day of the fatal accident. The identity of the man is not known.

“They were in the water, I think maybe chest-deep at, even at that," she told Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts. "Maybe waist-deep. There was an undertow and my son was not an experienced swimmer. He did not know how to deal with an undertow."

She added that the man was also caught in the undertow but was able to rescue himself. "He was a more experienced swimmer, but Malcolm was not," she said.

Pamela also clarified that previous reports that Malcolm had been swimming with his eight-year-old daughter when the tragedy happened were not correct. "She was on shore. She was not in the water,” she said.

She also went on to explain how Malcom’s death has affected her granddaughter. "Children process differently. She watched them resuscitate him, try to resuscitate him. She saw that, and I know that's awfully, awfully traumatic. She loved her father dearly. She adored papa. He was papa.”

Speaking about her granddaughter and also her mum, and Malcom’s wife, Tenisha Warner, she added: “They're both in deep grief."

Later in the interview, Pamela spoke about the moments after finding out that her son had died. She said that she let out a scream "from the bottom of [her] soul," which could be heard by her neighbours.

"What came up and what came out was huge," she said. "It was an indescribable pain that resonated through my body."

But, she has now said that she is "at peace with everything that happened" and said that it was her son’s “time”. "That was his time," she explained. "That was the manner in which he was to transition, and this is what I believe and what I feel."

Remembering Malcolm, she said: "I'm very grateful that I was chosen to be his mother. I think more than anything, I'm at peace with everything that happened. There was nothing left on the table."

"There was no shoulda, coulda woulda. I wish I would have said this, I wish I would have done this," she continued. "I don't have that. I feel that our journey together as mother and son was complete."

Malcolm is survived by his wife, Tenisha Warner, and their daughter.