Jenifer Lewis is speaking for the first time about the shocking near-death experience she had in late 2022, when she fell 3 meters from a balcony while on vacation in Africa.
Speaking for the first time about the incident in an interview with ABC News’ Robin Roberts that aired Tuesday Good morning America67-year-old Black-like star said last year was the “toughest” as she recovered from the fall.
“Did you think you were going to die?” Roberts, 63, asked Lewis, to which she replied, “I am.”
“I didn’t know you could be in so much pain and be alive,” she added. “From that high kick I was standing on my star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, five months later I was on the Serengeti field and that same leg couldn’t move.”
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The accident happened in November 2022, three months after the publication of her memoirs, Walking in my joy: these streets. Black-like it ended that April after eight seasons, and Lewis felt on top of the world.
“I was going to retire, come home,” she said. “I traveled the world and life was wonderful.”
But on what Roberts called “the trip of a lifetime” to Africa, Lewis nearly lost her life.
She and her friends traveled from Cape Town to Rwanda, where she climbed mountains with gorillas. “It was scary, but it gives you a sense of fearlessness and courage,” she said. “We have a good time, we feel great. We go where the right people are.”
Robin Roberts interviews Jennifer Lewis at her home on February 18, 2024.
Eric McCandless/ABC
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From there the group went to the Serengeti and settled in a hotel. Lewis collapsed at the end of her first day there. “When the sun goes down in the Serengeti, there are no street lights. It’s pitch black,” she recalled. “They escorted me to the hut, my room, but I didn’t get a tour. They were supposed to look around me.”
“I spread out my safari clothes and saw an endless pool on my deck. So I got out, I just realized that I was back in the Serengeti again. And I was walking and suddenly, I fell 10 feet into a dry ravine full of boulders, rocks and sharp stones. There was an area that was not separated and there was no sign that said, ‘Caution, 10-foot drop.’ ”
When asked what kind of pain she felt, Lewis Roberts said “Of course I was in shock.”
“My right side took the hit. My shoulder hit a rock,” she said. “Lightning flashed through my eye. In pitch black, I didn’t know I was falling. nothing could move. So I laid there and said, ‘Move, baby. Come on Jenny, move.’ ”
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Jenifer Lewis at her 2022 Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Jenifer Lewis is writing a book of essays about finding joy, activism and ‘falling for a con man’
Lewis called her friend Laurie after the fall. “It was hard to even take a deep breath to scream,” she said.
Lewis wanted to scream too, especially when Laurie pointed the flashlight at her and saw a 10-foot Cape buffalo. away—one of the many animals in the area.
“When Laurie ran for help, I heard a lion roar,” she recalled. “My last thought, because I’m Jenifer Lewis, was ‘What a title! The king ate the queen: Jenifer Lewis’ body parts are flown back to the US.’ ”
More of Roberts’ conversation with Lewis will air Tuesday on ABC News Live at 8:30 PM ET. synchronized, After the Fall: A Conversation with Robin Roberts and Jenifer Lewiswill also be available to stream on Hulu.
“I was humiliated,” she said in a video posted online Monday. “I don’t know what I should do, but I know I have to earn money to stay alive.”
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As for why Lewis waited so long to tell her story, she told Roberts, “I didn’t want you to know I was down until I showed you how I got back up.”
Good morning America airs weekdays on ABC begging at 7 a.m. ET.
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Source: HIS Education