Chadwick Boseman’s confidantes are revealing why the Black Panther star kept his stage 4 cancer battle private.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, his close friends, including producing partner and longtime friend Logan Coles, trainer Addison Henderson and agent Michael Greene reveal that Boseman, who died Aug. 28, wanted to use his time to focus on his artistry and activism.

“[Boseman] was just living his artistic life to the fullest and using his time and his moment to really affect people,” said Henderson.

Greene also said that Boseman used his mother’s teaching to keep his cancer diagnosis from the public.

“[She] always taught him not to have people fuss over him,” he said. “He also felt in this business that people trip out about things, and hew as a very, very private person.”

Because of this, no one, including Da 5 Bloods team and Spike Lee, Ryan Coogler and the Black Panther, and the team behind Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom among others, didn’t know about Boseman’s condition.

“[Boseman] was really in hard-core pain,” said Greene. But, he continued, Boseman “felt that being able to be with [co-star] Denzel [Washington] and to launch this cycle of [playwright] August Wilson at Netflix was so exciting to him.”

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Photo: Getty