Isaiah Washington reveals wife Jenise Maria Garland died in June 2025

Actor Isaiah Washington has revealed that his wife, Jenise Maria Garland, died in June 2025.

Washington, known to television viewers for playing Dr Preston Burke on Grey's Anatomy, shared the news in an Instagram post reported on 5 October 2026, according to Deadline. That is more than a year after her death. The announcement was the first public word from Washington about the loss.

Garland collapsed suddenly on 31 May 2025. She died nine days later, on 9 June 2025. Washington said the cause was a massive hemorrhagic stroke, a bleed in the brain that cuts off normal blood flow. The dates show how fast events moved, from collapse at the end of May to death in early June.

Washington said he and Garland had been married for 29 years. It is a marriage that spanned almost three decades. They had three children together. He did not share further personal details about the family in the reports of his post.

Washington was 63 when he announced his wife's death, according to Us Weekly. He chose to speak directly on Instagram, where public figures can post their own statements without an intermediary, as noted by the Daily Mail. The message set out the key facts. It gave the dates of collapse and death and named the cause. It did not give other medical details.

For general viewers, Washington is most closely associated with Grey's Anatomy, the long-running hospital drama where he played surgeon Preston Burke. That role made him a familiar face to millions of viewers who follow network television. He later took on a separate scripted television role, meaning a written drama with continuing characters, appearing in several episodes of P-Valley from 2020 to 2022. Both credits were noted in the reporting of his announcement.

What makes this stand out is the long silence before the news became public. The family held the loss privately for sixteen months. Fans are only learning of Garland's death now, well after the period when public figures usually confirm such news.

Washington has not set out plans for any further statement in the reports so far. The available reports focus on the dates, the cause and the length of the marriage. For now, those are the facts the family has chosen to share. They describe a sudden illness, a death in early June last year, and a marriage of nearly thirty years.