Family confirmed Thursday that Keisha Nash Whitaker, the actress and model ex-wife of Forest Whitaker, died this week at 51.
A cause of death was not immediately released for Nash, who split from Whitaker in 2018 after more than 20 years of marriage. The couple had two daughters together, and a child each from previous relationships.
True Whitaker, 25, confirmed the news in a heartbreaking tribute to her mother in an Instagram story, writing, “Goodbye mommy. I love you 4ever and beyond.”
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“The most beautiful woman in the world,” she continued. “Thank you for teaching me every single thing I know. I’ll see you in my dreams and I’ll feel you in my heart.”
Whitaker and Nash met on the set of Blown Away in 1994, with Nash telling Essence previously that, before they’d met, she’d seen Whitaker’s performance in A Rage in Harlem in 1991 and thought he had “a gentle soul and a nice spirit.”
The former couple married in Jamaica in 1995 and their first daughter, Sonnet, who is now an accomplished actress herself, was born the following year. Citing court records, multiple reports said Whitaker, 62, filed for divorce over “irreconcilable differences.”
Whitaker, who’s starred in Black Panther, The Butler, and dozens of other blockbuster films, did not immediately release a statement about his ex-partner’s death.
