Chadwick Boseman’s Colon Cancer, Explained: Inside His Private Battle
In a recent sit-down with The Hollywood Reporter, Simone Ledward Boseman said she’d finally found something she’d been searching for: the words she planned to deliver if her husband’s name was called at the 2021 Academy Awards.
Chadwick Boseman didn’t win that night, but the note — grounded in faith and gratitude, with a nod to his parents, Carolyn and Leroy — now has been heard.
A private battle, relentless work
Boseman was diagnosed with stage III colon cancer in 2016 at age 39. He kept the illness out of public view, a choice Simone says was deliberate because he didn’t want sympathy or special treatment to color how people received his work. Even as he underwent surgeries and chemotherapy, he kept filming. By the end of 2018, the disease had advanced to stage IV. He died on August 28, 2020, at 43.
Projects he completed while in treatment included:
- Marshall
- Black Panther
- Da 5 Bloods
- Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
His choice to stay quiet about his diagnosis later helped focus attention on the rise of early-onset colorectal cancer and the importance of paying attention to symptoms and getting timely care.
The speech she saved
During the interview, Simone read the note aloud — the acceptance she would have given on his behalf:
“I will never stop thanking God for you. Thank you to the most high God. Thank you, Carolyn and Leroy Boseman [Chadwick’s parents], and your mothers, and your mothers’ mothers. What purity. What honesty. What pain. What a role. What work. What beautiful, intricate humanity. What courage, bravery, fearlessness, honesty, commitment, humanity, strength. A spirit that refused to surrender to despair. What an actor. What an artist. What a cast. What a team. What a vision. Glory be to the most high God. Long live the King.”
The remarks were written for the 2021 Academy Awards , where Boseman was posthumously nominated for Best Actor for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. He did not win.