March 12 (UPI) — Jenifer Lewis is going public about a near-fatal fall she experienced in 2022.
The 67-year-old actress shared in a preview of an interview with Robin Roberts how she was seriously injured after falling 10 feet from a balcony.
Lewis was vacationing in Africa when she stepped out at night onto a balcony with an infinity pool at the lodge where she was staying.
“I was just taking in the fact that I was back in the Serengeti once again,” the star recalled. “I’m walking, and all of a sudden, kaboom. I had fallen ten 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 ‘caution,'” she added.
.@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— Good Morning America (@GMA) March 12, 2024
Lewis said she was “in shock” and unable to move after her fall.
“My right hip took the impact. My shoulder went up against the stone. A lightning bolt went through my mind’s eye, right here,” she said. “In pitch black, I didn’t know I was falling. Nothing would move.”
After Lewis called for her friend, she realized there was “wild animals” nearby, including a Cape buffalo “ten feet away.” Lewis also heard the roar of a lion.
“My last thought, because I am Jenifer Lewis, was, ‘What a headline. The king ate the queen!'” she said with a laugh.
Lewis’ full interview will air at 8:30 p.m. EDT on ABC and Hulu.
She thanked Roberts on Instagram, writing, “Thank you so very much @robinrobertsgma for sharing my story.”
Lewis is known for the films What’s Love Got to Do with It, The Preacher’s Wife and Think Like a Man, and for playing Ruby Johnson on the ABC series Black-ish.
