Forest Whitaker’s Ex-Wife, Dead at 51

Actress Keisha Nash, who was married to Forest Whitaker from 1996 until their divorce in 2018, has died. She was 51.

Whitaker and Nash’s daughter, True Whitaker, confirmed her mother’s death in an Instagram Story she shared Thursday. A cause of death was not immediately provided.

“goodbye mommy. I love you 4ever and beyond,” True, 25, wrote in a caption over a black-and-white photo of her mother. “the most beautiful woman in the world… 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.”
True also shared a photo of her mother with lyrics from soul singer Donny Hathaway’s song “A Song For You” playing over the picture.
Nash’s death was confirmed by her family to Deadline.
Whitaker and Nash first met on the set of the 1994 film Blown Away after she was cast to play Whitaker’s character’s girlfriend, per CBS News. Whitaker proposed the following year and the couple married in 1996 in Montego Bay, Jamaica. In addition to True, the pair also share daughter Sonnet Noel, 27.

Whitaker also has an older son named Ocean, 33, while Keisha has Autumn, 32, both from previous relationships.Whitaker filed for divorce from Nash after 22 years of marriage in December 2018 and cited irreconcilable differences in his petition, according to documents obtained by PEOPLE at the time.
A Massachusetts-based magazine titled Northshore identified Nash as a graduate of Lynn Classical High School in Lynn, Mass., in a 2008 article.

Nash was also the creator of Kissable Couture, a luxury cosmetics line she started with makeup artist A.J. Crimson.

“I’ve always been very ambitious,” she told O, The Oprah Magazine in 2008 about her work for the brand. “When my kids were younger, I tried to start a clothing line for children. But you have to be really committed to a new business, and at that time I was more focused on being a mother.”

In a 2009 interview with Parade, Whitaker said of his wife, “To be honest, my wife is much stronger with the kids than I am. They come to me when they’re trying to slip something by. I have to always take a pause, when they come and say, ‘Hey Dad, is it OK if we do this?’ So I just look at them like, ‘Have you talked to your mom about that?’ They know I’m the easy one.”