Former Grey’s Anatomy star Isaiah Washington is breaking his silence on his wife Jenisa Marie Garland’s sudden death in 2025.
“Yes…the rumors are true. My dear wife of 29 years collapsed suddenly on May 31, 2025 and passed away on June 9, 2025,” Washington, 63, wrote via Instagram on Saturday, October 3, alongside a black-and-white photograph of his late spouse. “It came as a huge shock to me and our entire family. She succumbed to a massive hemorrhagic stroke and never recovered.”
The actor continued, “Listen, ya’ll…some headaches are not just headaches or migraines, they can be much worse and a warning sign. Get a brain scan if you can and take those headaches seriously. She has been gone 13 months now, but she left 3 incredibly amazing children behind to continue her legacy. I don’t know if this is an appropriate post, because Jenisa Washington was extremely private, but I guess I just have to be reprimanded from her on the other side.”
The pair — who married on Valentine’s Day in 1996 after meeting at a dinner party in Los Angeles — raised three children together: Tyme, Iman and Isaiah V. The former fashion designer remained out of the public eye amid Washington’s rise to stardom, including his run on Grey’s Anatomy as world-renowned heart surgeon Preston Burke.
Back in 2022, Washington opened up about how his marriage and job as a father shaped the types of roles he was willing to play onscreen.
“I always told my wife, since I have the kids and a wife, that I would rather kiss a horse than a woman on screen,” the actor told Fox News Digital at the time. “Because then I have to explain myself to my daughter, like why are you kissing a strange woman? I’ve said ‘no’ more than I have said ‘yes.’”
He continued at the time, “Because I always wanted to be alive to know 20 years later, what my kids would think of me in that particular role. For me, being married and having children did change a lot of my trajectory.”
While Washington has revealed that his three children have no interest in following in his acting footsteps, he did enlist the family to help create a “greeting video” for his directorial debut, Corsicana.
“I pulled my crew together,” he told Fox News Digital in 2022. “I found out really well that my daughter is going to be a director, my son is going to be special effects, scripting and story boarder and the other son is going to be a producer. And we all came together and we did this video.”
He continued of his daughter’s directorial prowess, “It was beautiful. She was giving me direction.”
