Jenifer Lewis Shares Health Update After Falling From 10-Ft. Balcony In Africa (Video)
Jenifer Lewis is seemingly recovering well after a scary incident while vacationing in Africa. Earlier this month, the âBlack-ishâ star revealed that she fell from a 10-foot balcony in 2022.
Lewis spoke about the near-death experience and her tough recovery journey on âABC Newsâ with Robin Roberts. She had kept the incident under wraps until this sit-down. Her reason for doing so?Â
âI didnât want yâall to know I had fallen until I could show you how I got back up,â Lewis said.
Jenifer Lewis Shares Video Walking After 2022 Fall
A week after the interview, on Friday (March 23), she shared a video update with fans. Taking to her Instagram feed, Jenifer Lewis first appeared using a walker while strolling down a sidewalk. At first, she appears to have a âstruggleâ look on her face, but that quickly changes when she lifts and throws the walker to the side.
She then continues to walk, bussing a couple of lilâ moves to Saucy Santanaâs âWalkâ song. Meanwhile, in her caption, she reassured her fans that all was well with Auntie!
âDonât worry about me yâall! Auntieâs back WALKING, talking, singing and acting a dam fool!â
Peep her health update video below.Â
What Happened To Auntie Jenifer In Africa?
As mentioned, the story about Jenifer Lewisâ fall from a balcony in November 2022 broke last Tuesday. The 67-year-old actress described the past year of her life as âthe hardest.â She told Robin Roberts that she thought she was going to die.
âI didnât know you could be in that much pain and be alive,â Jenifer shared. âI went from that high kick standing on my star at the Hollywood Walk of Fame, five months later, I was on the ground of the Serengeti and that same leg couldnât move.â
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At the time of the fall, Jenifer Lewis was having a good year. Besides the Hollywood star, she had also wrapped the eighth season of âBlack-ishâ and released her memoir âWalking in My Joy: In These Streets,â per PEOPLE.
Auntie Jen told Roberts that she had planned to retire, move back home to Missouri and that life felt âwonderful,â especially after her world travels.
Then, one additional âtrip of a lifetimeâ to Africa with friends changed her trajectory. Her travels on the continent included a journey from Cape Town to Rwanda.
âWeâre having a good time, weâre feeling a lot. Weâre going where the real people are,â Jenifer said, revealing she even spent time in the mountains with gorillas.
After arriving in Serengeti, Tanzania, she checked into a hotel. Though she was escorted to her room, she did not get a tour of it. By nightfall, she said, it was pitch black due to the lack of street lights in the city. When she stepped outside her lodge onto a balcony, her trip went from wonderful to her life being in danger.
âI laid out my safari clothes and I saw the infinity pool out on my deck. So I went out, I was just taking in that I was back in the Serengeti once again. And Iâm walking and all of a sudden, I had fallen 10 feet into a dry ravine full of boulders and stones and sharp rocks. There was a space that was not sectioned off and there was no sign that said, âCaution, 10-foot. drop.â â
She was âin shock.â Though it âwas hardâ to take a âbig breath to screamâ thatâs what she did, calling for her friend Laurie.
âMy right hip took the impact. My shoulder went up against the stone,â she said. âA lightning bolt went through my mindâs eye. In pitch black, I didnât know I was falling. nothing would move. So I laid there and said, âMove your body, baby. Come on Jenny, move your body.â â
After her friend flashed a light on her, she noted a Cape buffalo just a few feet away and said she heard a lion roar. At that point, all she could think about was a headline about being eaten alive. As for how sheâs feeling now, Jennifer Lewis is âhumbledâ and feels like she has âto earn being alive.â
Watch a portion of the sit-down below.Â
.@ABC NEWS EXCLUSIVE: “In pitch black I didn’t know I was falling.”
Jenifer Lewis opens up to @RobinRoberts about a near-fatal fall she took while on her dream vacation. See more tonight at 8:30pm ET on @ABCNewsLive and @Hulu. pic.twitter.com/oSMAjsoXog
â Good Morning America (@GMA) March 12, 2024
The full interview is now available on Hulu.
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