Chadwick Boseman's wife files probate petition: Star left no will
Taylor Simone Ledward, seen with Chadwick Boseman at a "21 Bridges" screening in November 2019, has filed a probate case after her movie star husband died without a will on Aug. 28. Credit: Patricia Schlein / STAR MAX / IPx
Because late "Black Panther" star Chadwick Boseman left no will at the time of his Aug. 28 death, his wife has filed a petition with a Los Angeles Court to be named a limited-authority administrator of his estate.
A court document obtained by Newsday shows that Simone Ledward, whom Boseman married months before his death from colon cancer at age 43, filed a petition for letters of administration at Los Angeles Superior Court's Stanley Mosk Courthouse on Thursday. Under her formal name, Taylor Simone Ledward, the filing by attorney William C. George of the Westlake Village, California, firm Burkhalter Kessler Clement & George, said Chadwick Aaron Boseman died intestate, meaning without a will, and that approximately $939,000 of his estate must go through probate before distribution.
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Because late "Black Panther" star Chadwick Boseman left no will at the time of his Aug. 28 death, his wife has filed a petition with a Los Angeles Court to be named a limited-authority administrator of his estate.
A court document obtained by Newsday shows that Simone Ledward, whom Boseman married months before his death from colon cancer at age 43, filed a petition for letters of administration at Los Angeles Superior Court's Stanley Mosk Courthouse on Thursday. Under her formal name, Taylor Simone Ledward, the filing by attorney William C. George of the Westlake Village, California, firm Burkhalter Kessler Clement & George, said Chadwick Aaron Boseman died intestate, meaning without a will, and that approximately $939,000 of his estate must go through probate before distribution.
The filing notes that in addition to Ledward, Boseman is survived by his parents, Leroy and Carolyn Boseman of Belton, South Carolina.
The listed estate likely does not include property and other assets held in trusts. A hearing is scheduled for Nov. 19.
Ledward, a singer, is a 2014 graduate of California State Polytechnic University - Pomona who received a bachelor's degree in music industry studies. She and Boseman were first photographed together at Los Angeles International Airport in 2015, and after Ledward's grandmother confirmed the relationship in 2018, the two made their red carpet debut together in January the following year. The couple never confirmed reports that they had become engaged in October 2019, after Ledward displayed an engagement ring at a Lakers-Clippers basketball game the two attended then in Los Angeles.
Their marriage was publicly unknown until the Boseman family's announcement of the actor’s death included the statement "He died in his home, with his wife and family by his side."
Boseman died of multiple organ failure after a yearslong, private battle with cancer. Multiple media outlets, citing Boseman's death certificate, list the actor's burial place as Welfare Baptist Church in Belton, although Marcus Brown, of the Marcus D. Brown Funeral Home in nearby Anderson, and the church's Rev. Ankoma Anderson each told the Anderson Independent Mail newspaper that Boseman is not interred in the cemetery there.
Boseman's films include the biographical dramas "42" (2013), as pioneering African-American Major League Baseball icon Jackie Robinson, "Get on Up" (2014), as soul-music legend James Brown, and "Marshall" (2017), as future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, in addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbusters "Captain America: Civil War" (2016), "Black Panther" (2018), "Avengers: Infinity War" (2018) and "Avengers: Endgame" (2019) as the superhero Black Panther.
He will posthumously star in the upcoming Netflix movie "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," adapted from the August Wilson Tony Award-nominated play with Viola Davis. Boseman will play an ambitious trumpeter, Levee, with Davis portraying the pioneering blues woman, Rainey.