The oldest son of actor Michael Jai White died from coronavirus “just a few months ago” at age 38.

Speaking to VladTV, White opened up about the tragic news, noting that he had his son when he was 15 years old and the two had “grown up together.” 

He admitted that his son grew up with the “street element,” which contributed to his eventual death. 

“Unfortunately, he was still kinda out there in the streets hustling, wasn’t doing well, started getting on substances,” White shared. “He’d come out, go back in, all that type of stuff.”

White said his son was in the hospital for a while, and “COVID was waiting for him… That was the knockout blow,” he added.

White’s son had a compromised immune system due to substance abuse, and he wasn’t vaccinated against the coronavirus.

“He never shook the streets,” he said. “That was his thing.”

Despite his best efforts to help his son, the Black Dynamite star said, “ultimately, it’s up to that person, especially if it’s a grown person.” 

White’s oldest son reportedly leaves behind six children.  

Gillian Iliana Waters (L) and Michael Jai White attends the 2018 Soul Train Awards at the Orleans Arena on November 17, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images)

White himself has five other children, including kids from his wife Gillian’s previous relationship. The couple wed in 2015, 18 years after they first met. 

“We met in 1997, at a club where a friend was having a party,” said Gillian in a 2020 interview with Essence. “Just for the record, you can meet your better half in a club.” 

When they first met, both were ending marriages so the timing wasn’t right. However, sparks were certainly flying. 

“We knew that every moment spent together was just magical,” said White in the same interview. “That was something that we never lost.”

White went on to say that he “had to become the man who deserved her.”

“I had work to do that required growing up completely and being the man I could be. I claim this wholeheartedly: No one has ever been with the man I am now,” he added. 

“There was a time when I thought relationships had to be drama and everything took work,” said White. “I think I realized with Gillian that there was a path of least resistance I always should have taken. You’re lucky to have friends who don’t require much labor because your chemistry just works. That’s a blessing, and you don’t get too many of those. I realized that’s what I had with her.”

Gillian, an actress and athlete just like her superstar husband, said she and White “work together in such a great way that being together is probably the best situation we could be in.”

Most recently, White posted a super-sexy photo of him and his wife walking on the beach showing off their fit physiques. In the caption, he noted that fans often hit him up for relationship advice “because they tell me how much the relationship I have with my wife @iamgillianwhite inspires them,” he wrote. 

White continued, “ I like to tell them from the moment I first met Gillian, over 25 years ago, she never once tried to impress me with her looks or body…she never tried hard to “get me”. She was always just herself…funny, intelligent, talented, friendly, confident but modest and always respected herself and others around her,” he wrote. 

“That’s what drew me to her…her natural look was a bonus. I always admired her for never trying to fit in, acting like something she’s not and just completely being true to herself. Substance and quality is what “got me”; love, admiration and respect is what keeps me,” White concluded. 

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