A longtime friend of Tenisha Warner says the late actor’s widow has “stretched every resource she has” while caring for their daughter and navigating his estate

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A friend of Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s widow is asking fans to rally around her and the couple’s 9-year-old daughter.

On Tuesday, Aug. 11, Destiny Rael, who says she has been Tenisha Warner’s closest friend for 19 years and first introduced her to Malcolm, has launched a GoFundMe with a goal of $150,000 to support Tenisha as she continues navigating a legal battle involving her late husband’s estate.

“I am organizing this campaign because I have witnessed, up close, the depth of Tenisha’s grief and the weight she has had to carry,” Rael wrote in a message shared with the fundraiser. “I know she would never ask for this kind of support herself, so I am asking on her behalf.”

Malcolm died at 54 in an accidental drowning while on a family vacation in Costa Rica on July 20, 2025. In the year since, Rael said Tenisha has continued homeschooling her daughter while grieving the loss of her husband.

“Every single day she shows up for her child as though her own world had not fallen apart, and still makes sure breakfast is on the table,” Rael wrote.

According to Rael, Tenisha also returned home after Malcolm’s death to find that the house she shared with her husband had been affected by “unexpected flooding.”

“She is rebuilding not only her life without him, but the very home they created together,” Rael wrote, adding that Tenisha has simultaneously faced legal and financial matters while caring for their daughter.

The home carries particular significance for Tenisha, who told Gayle King in an interview last month that despite the pain of living there without Malcolm, she couldn’t imagine leaving the place where they built their life together.

When King asked whether she had ever considered moving during a CBS Mornings interview conducted before she filed a lawsuit against the late actor’s mother over his estate, Tenisha replied, “I don’t think about moving.”

“Because all of our memories are here. Right here,” she explained. “And it hurts. I can’t be in my own home without feeling the loss, but I can’t walk away.”

Tenisha also opened up about what she needs most from others as she and her daughter continue grieving. “Just don’t forget us,” she said. “I think the hardest thing about grief is that people, they move on, you know? But for us, because we’re his wife and child, there’s no moving on.”

Instead, Tenisha said, “There’s moving with and living with.”

“He will always be a part of our everyday,” she added.

Rael also addressed what she said may be a misconception about the financial situation Malcolm left behind. “You may assume that Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s career left his wife and daughter financially secure. That was his intention,” she wrote.

Rael claimed Malcolm, who starred on The Cosby Show, had been working with attorneys to update his estate plan to provide for Tenisha and their daughter but died before he could sign it. “They thought they had time,” she wrote.

Rael said Tenisha had stepped back from her career as a doctor of psychology for much of her marriage to focus on raising their daughter and supporting Malcolm and their family.

“She would gladly make it again,” Rael said of the decision. “But it means that today, without his income and without access to what he intended to provide for them, she does not have the financial cushion people might assume.”

The fundraiser comes amid Tenisha’s ongoing legal dispute involving Malcolm’s estate and his mother, Pamela Warner.

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In June, Tenisha, 48, spoke out after taking legal action in California Superior Court, telling PEOPLE in a statement that she had tried to resolve her husband’s estate privately.

“For the last year, I have attempted to privately settle my beloved husband’s complicated estate and honor his last wishes,” she said in a statement.

Tenisha said Malcolm intended to provide for her and their daughter and had been “close to finalizing a new estate plan” that would have replaced one created in 1996, when he was 26 — decades before his marriage and the birth of his daughter. He was “unable to do so before we lost him,” she said.

“I have been struggling to care for our daughter as a single mom and now as her sole provider,” Tenisha continued. “Legally, I had no choice but to take action to protect our rights before any potential statute of limitations expired.”

In a filing in Georgia’s DeKalb County Superior Court previously obtained by PEOPLE, Tenisha claimed that she and Malcolm signed a premarital agreement in May 2022 under which he agreed to secure a $1 million life insurance policy naming her as the sole beneficiary. She alleged that he did not obtain the policy.

Pamela serves as successor trustee of the Warner Family Trust, which Malcolm established in 1996, according to the filing. Tenisha has requested that the trust cover the alleged obligation because she believes Malcolm’s estate “will be inadequate to satisfy” the costs.

In separate Los Angeles court documents previously obtained by PEOPLE, Tenisha claimed she is owed $1,276,042.46, including the alleged $1 million life insurance obligation and other debts.

On the first anniversary of his death, Pamela shared a tribute on her son’s legacy Instagram account. “During my year long journey, I have discovered how cruel, evil and greedy a human can be,” she wrote in part, without naming anyone. “I have also discovered the depth of love, care, concern and support that humans are capable of.”

In the GoFundMe for Tenisha and Malcolm-Jamal’s daughter, Rael emphasized in the GoFundMe that the fundraiser isn’t intended to draw the public into the family’s legal dispute.

“I am not asking anyone to take sides in a family matter that was never meant to be public,” she wrote. “I am asking you to stand with a grieving wife and mother, and her young daughter, so they don’t lose what Malcolm always intended to provide for them.”

Rael said money raised will help alleviate the financial strain Tenisha is facing and provide stability for her and her daughter as Malcolm’s affairs are resolved.