On November 20, 2025, actor Chadwick Boseman’s widow, Taylor Simone Ledward (30 years old), received her late husband’s posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The emotional ceremony was attended by Boseman’s professional colleagues, such as his antagonist in Black Panther, Michael B. Jordan —most recent Oscar winner for best actor for Los pecadores—, or Letitia Wright, who plays his sister in the Marvel films. Boseman’s real brothers were also present: Derrick and Kevin Boseman, who posed alongside Ledward in tribute to the actor, who passed away on August 28, 2020, at the age of 43, due to colon cancer he had been privately suffering from for years.
That image of unity is now far from reality. According to documents obtained by media outlets such as People or Page Six, Boseman’s brothers have filed a lawsuit in a Los Angeles court to remove his widow as administrator of his estate, alleging that she has not properly distributed the remaining assets of the late actor’s inheritance in the six years since his death. “She [Ledward] continues to exercise full control over his estate without consulting Leroy and Carolyn [the actor’s parents],” the lawsuit states.
The documents indicate that the actor’s parents would be entitled to 25% of Chadwick’s estate. Ledward, for her part, is entitled to 50% of the inheritance because the actor died intestate approximately six days after marrying her in a private ceremony. According to the lawsuit, a court would have issued a “final resolution” in 2022 ordering the widow to distribute the estate’s assets, including a $40,000 life insurance policy in favor of his mother, Carolyn. However, Kevin and Derrick allege in the petition that Ledward “continues to exercise unilateral control over the deceased’s estate, denying the deceased’s family closure on this chapter, which has been delayed too long, or participation in decision-making regarding matters affecting Leroy and Carolyn’s interests in the deceased’s estate.”
The Boseman brothers also allege that Chadwick’s estate includes additional assets beyond bank accounts and the insurance policy, such as “copyrights and residual income, image and intellectual property rights, real estate, a previously undisclosed CNB bank account, and other personal property.” They claim that Ledward’s lack of transparency “gives the impression that she is concealing assets from the deceased’s family and the court.”
According to the lawsuit, the actor’s widow never delivered the insurance policy to Carolyn, and one of Chadwick’s bank accounts and his retirement account remain “inexplicably open,” but Derrick and Kevin are unaware of their contents. Furthermore, allegedly, “numerous outstanding SAG-AFTRA [the actors’ union] payments dating from between 2020 and the present” have not been accounted for, and unclaimed assets belonging to Chadwick were never “collected, accounted for, or distributed.” Derrick and Kevin also denounce that Ledward “failed to distribute the deceased’s image and intellectual property rights by exercising unilateral control,” so that she “continues to benefit from the deceased’s fame.” “Ledward has prevented Chadwick’s family from taking advantage of lucrative business opportunities that could benefit the deceased’s elderly parents,” the document explains.
Finally, Derrick and Kevin are asking the court to appoint Jason Rubin, a private fiduciary and forensic auditor, as administrator of Chadwick’s estate, replacing Ledward. She has not yet commented on the matter.
