Chadwick Boseman Estate Dispute: Brothers Ask Court to Remove Widow Taylor Simone Ledward as Administrator
Nearly six years after Chadwick Boseman’s death, his brothers Kevin and Derrick have asked a Los Angeles court to remove his widow, Taylor Simone Ledward, as administrator of his estate. In a petition filed July 17 on behalf of their parents, they allege she never finished distributing the half of the estate a judge ordered handed over to Boseman’s mother and father back in 2022. Her attorneys have not yet responded.
Boseman died of colon cancer on August 28, 2020, at age 43, without leaving a will. Under California law, that meant half his estate went to Ledward, whom he married shortly before his death, and a quarter each to his parents, Leroy and Carolyn Boseman. A court appointed Ledward administrator, and in October 2022 ordered her to distribute the parents’ share.
The new petition says that never happened.
What the brothers are claiming
Kevin and Derrick Boseman allege their parents still have not received assets they were awarded almost four years ago. The petition claims Ledward “continues to exert unilateral control over Decedent’s estate” and says the delay has left their parents without money and insurance they are entitled to at, in the filing’s words, a vulnerable age.
According to court documents reported by E! News, the assets in question total more than $3.8 million, including roughly $151,000 in cash, a $241,000 IRA and $3.3 million in stock tied to Chadwick Boseman, Inc. The brothers also allege the estate holds more than what was originally listed: royalties, residuals, image and intellectual property rights, real property and a previously undisclosed bank account.
They are asking the judge to hold Ledward in contempt, require a full accounting of the estate within 30 days, and replace her with attorney Jason Rubin as a neutral administrator, along with a forensic accountant to check for any unaccounted-for assets.
What we don’t know yet
These are allegations in a filing, not findings. No court has ruled that Ledward mismanaged anything. In fact, the 2022 order found her original list of the estate’s assets to be “true and correct,” and she waived the administrator’s fee she was entitled to collect. Her side of this story has not been heard yet. ABC News and E! both reached out to her representatives and got no response, and no hearing date has been reported.
Ledward has spent the years since Boseman’s death publicly focused on his legacy, including explaining his decision to keep his cancer diagnosis private even from Marvel while filming.
Boseman died without a will at 43, and his family is still in court six years later. It’s the clearest celebrity example yet of what intestacy actually costs the people left behind, in the US and anywhere else.
