Chadwick Boseman’s wife Taylor Simone Ledward on his cancer battle: 'We were sure he would make it'

Taylor Simone Ledward has shared insight into Chadwick Boseman’s private battle with colon cancer, describing the couple’s initial optimism following his diagnosis.

In an interview with Today, Ledward said they believed he would recover despite the seriousness of the situation. “We both felt very sure that he would make it through. It was going to be a challenging moment, but something that he would come out on the other side of and be fine. They would do a surgery, he would do some chemo afterward, and he would be OK. There wasn’t much talk at all of the possibility of him not being OK on the other side of that.”

Ledward, who married Boseman months before his death in August 2020, said she was taken aback by his stage 3 diagnosis in 2016. She explained that she had not been aware of his symptoms until he had already sought medical attention. “I didn’t know that he was experiencing anything until he had already been to the doctor twice,” she said. “It all seemed to come about very suddenly… It was a matter of weeks that he started not feeling well.”

She also pointed to the challenges of detecting colon cancer early, particularly in younger patients. Boseman, she noted, had not yet reached the recommended age for routine screenings such as colonoscopies.

According to Ledward, Boseman’s condition went into remission in 2018, shortly before the release of Black Panther, in which he starred as T’Challa. She described that period as especially significant, both publicly and privately. “They didn’t know that we were celebrating that he had a clear scan,” she said, referring to audiences at the time. “It felt like we got another chance.”

However, by the end of that year, his cancer had returned and progressed to stage 4. Ledward said Boseman made a deliberate decision to keep his illness private, as he did not want it to affect how he was treated or his work. “Chad was not a person that would have wanted to be treated any differently because people knew that he was sick,” she said, adding that he remained committed to his craft throughout his illness.

Since his death at age 43, Ledward has continued to honour his legacy, including speaking at a ceremony marking his posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She described him as someone whose impact extended beyond acting, shaped by strong personal relationships and a sense of purpose that guided both his life and career.