Exclusive: 'Black-ish' star Jenifer Lewis reveals devastating accident during a trip
"Black-ish" star Jenifer Lewis opened up exclusively to "Good Morning America" co-anchor Robin Roberts this week about a devastating accident she experienced during a celebratory trip to the Serengeti region of Africa, which left her unable to walk.
Lewis was injured after falling 10 feet off her hotel balcony and into a dry ravine.
"It was hard to even take a big breath to scream," she recalled, speaking with Roberts.
Lewis, a comedic actress known for her prominent roles in hit sitcoms like "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," " A Different World" and "Girlfriends," told Roberts that this past year had been "the hardest" for her.
Stream Roberts' full sit-down with Lewis on Hulu.
Inside Lewis' hardest year
After wrapping "Black-ish" in April 2022, Lewis said she was ready to end her career and enjoy life.
"I was gonna retire and move back home," she said. "I conquered a dream."
As part of that post-career celebration, she said she planned a trip to Africa with a friend.
After a day of exploring nature in the Serengeti, Lewis said she was enjoying her surroundings when she fell off of her hotel balcony into pitch black darkness.
"A lightning bolt went through my mind's eye ... in [the] pitch black, I didn't know I was falling," she recalled.
Lewis said her shoulder and right hip took on the brunt of the impact.
"Nothing would move. So, I laid there, I said, 'Move your body, baby. Come on, Jenny. Move your body,'" she recounted.
Eventually, though she said it hurt to breathe, Lewis was able to wake up her friend with her screams.
She said she heard a lion roar while lying in the ravine.
"My last thought, because I am Jenifer Lewis, was, 'What a headline,'" she said with a laugh. "'The king ate the queen: Pieces of Jenifer Lewis' body being flown back to the states.'"
Lewis said she was rescued by Maasai warriors, members of a Tanzanian tribe who fiercely protect local wildlife.
"I got a lotta jokes that a lotta animals came by while I was laying on the ground. The hyenas went by laughing," she said. "A baboon jumped out of the tree and said could he get a selfie. He'd seen me on 'Fresh Prince.'"
Despite her humor, Lewis said the fall left her in immense pain.
The remote location of her trip complicated her rescue, and Lewis said Doctors Without Borders staff eventually airlifted her to Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, where she underwent surgery for a fractured acetabulum, the socket that holds the femur in place.
Her harrowing experience included 10 hours of surgery, three blood transfusions and six days in an intensive care unit.
"The Nairobians were a beautiful, sweet people. They took such good care of me," Lewis recalled.
Still, she said her pain was unrelenting upon returning to the United States.
The road to recovery
Three months into Lewis' recovery, she said she stopped taking pain medications. "If there's pain let me feel it so I can fix it," she recalled thinking.
Despite slow progress -- including months of rehabilitation and relearning how to walk -- she said she eventually became inspired by her own growth.
"You can't put your sock on one day, but the next day you can," she said. "It was everything that I had taken care of my body before I left for Africa."
Lewis said she is sharing her story now because she wants others to know their setbacks are surmountable.
"Whether it's falling out of a relationship, falling out with your parents, falling down physically, any fall, I wanna tell the world, 'Oh yes, you can get up.'"
Stream Roberts' full sit-down with Lewis on Hulu.
