As colon cancer rates continue rising among people under 50, Chadwick Boseman’s widow, Simone Ledward Boseman, is speaking out, sharing new insight into the actor’s private battle and raising awareness that could help save lives.
Boseman passed away at 43 in August 2020 after quietly fighting colon cancer, a loss that stunned fans around the world. In a March 20 interview with TODAY’s Craig Melvin, Ledward Boseman revealed that the diagnosis came as a shock not just publicly, but personally as well.
“I didn’t know that he was experiencing anything until he had already been to the doctor twice. It all seemed to come about very suddenly. It was a matter of weeks that he started not feeling well,” she said.
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She explained that colon cancer can be difficult to detect early, especially in younger people.
Ledward Boseman said colon cancer is “really tricky in that way.”
“And because he was so young, he wasn’t even at the point where he would consider having a colonoscopy,” she added.
The Black Panther star was diagnosed in 2016 with Stage 3 colon cancer. Even now, Ledward Boseman says there are still unknowns about his medical background.
“I still don’t know his family history,” she said, noting that many people face similar gaps in their health knowledge.
How does colon cancer develop?
Colon cancer develops in the large intestine, often beginning as noncancerous polyps that grow slowly over time, sometimes without symptoms. When signs do appear, they can include changes in bowel habits, abdominal pain, rectal bleeding, or unexplained weight loss. Health experts stress that regular screenings, beginning at age 45 or even earlier, are key to catching the disease early.
According to the American Cancer Society, in the United States, colorectal cancer ranks as the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths among men and the fourth among women. When combined, however, it becomes the second deadliest cancer overall, with an estimated 55,230 deaths projected in 2026.
Simone Ledward Boseman always remained hopeful that her husband would pull through.
Despite the seriousness of the diagnosis, Ledward Boseman said she and her husband remained hopeful throughout his fight. After Chadwick Boseman’s diagnosis, he and his wife were “very confident” that he “would make it through,” she recalled.
“To us, it was going be a challenging moment, but something that he would come out on the other side of and be fine. And they would do a surgery, and he would do some chemo afterward, and he would be OK. And there wasn’t much talk at all of the possibility of him not being OK on the other side of that,” she said.
“Ledward Boseman said thinking about the possibility of her husband not surviving felt ‘like a betrayal of faith,’” TODAY noted.
Despite his diagnosis, Chadwick Boseman remained hopeful throughout his fight. Ledward Boseman shared that he was briefly cancer-free in 2018, calling it “a beautiful year.” By the end of that year, however, the cancer had returned as Stage 4.
Throughout it all, Boseman chose to keep his battle private.
“The work is what was keeping him moving, so he didn’t want the work to suffer just because he was sick. He didn’t want to be handled with kid gloves because people thought he wasn’t going to be able to do his job and slide underneath falling cabinets and run across fields,” Ledward Boseman said of her husband’s determination to live.
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