Once the world had gotten over the initial shock of Chadwick Boseman‘s death, we began to look at the way he kept his illness a secret for so long. He appeared in many physically demanding roles after his diagnosis and his friends and family testified that he hoped to beat cancer right up until the final days. Now, we’ve learned that he didn’t even leave a will, which may prove that he always expected to live a long life.
This could lead to legal complications, though, and Entertainment Tonight is reporting that they’ve seen court documents revealing that he died with $938,500 in personal property and assets. However, this figure isn’t a true reflection of his wealth (for example, he was paid a percentage of the profits on the $1.3 billion grossing Black Panther), and as with most Hollywood stars, his money is probably held in a variety of trusts or investments.
Boseman might have given away much of his fortune prior to his death, too, as he made multiple large charitable donations over 2019 and 2020, The biggest was in April of this year, when he gave a whopping $4.2 million to hospitals serving black communities for PPE to protect their staff from COVID-19.
The documents also reveal that Boseman’s wife, Taylor Simone Ledward, has applied to be named as limited authority administrator for his estate, with parents Leroy and Carolyn Boseman mentioned as well. Ledward and Boseman had been in a relationship since 2015 and were reported to be engaged by October 2019 with plans to marry in 2020. But it seems that as his condition worsened, the pair decided to secretly tie the knot.
While the couple were both very private about their personal life, they weren’t shy in regards to showing affection to one another in public. During Chadwick Boseman‘s acceptance speech for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture at the NAACP Image Awards in March 2019, he said:
“Simone, you’re with me every day. I have to acknowledge you right now. Love you.”
She looked up and mouthed back: “I love you.”
Here’s hoping him dying intestate can be resolved fairly swiftly. When there’s large amounts of money involved, even the nicest people can become mean and relationships fray at the seams. Fortunately, though, everything I’ve heard indicates that Ledward and the Bosemans have their heads screwed on straight, so hopefully that won’t be the case here.
