However, Je'niece Childress said that as time passed she and her mother braced for the possibility that he could die.

Mac, 50, died Saturday from what his publicist said were complications from pneumonia.

"Initially when he was hospitalized we expected him to come back home, but as the weeks went on, I kind of knew," Childress told The Associated Press.

Childress said Mac had been at Northwestern Memorial Hospital since the middle of July.

Mac also suffered from sarcoidosis, an inflammatory lung disease that produces tiny lumps of cells in the body's organs, but had said the condition went into remission in 2005. His publicist, Danica Smith, has said the pneumonia was unrelated.

Mac, who was born Bernard Jeffrey McCullough in Chicago, got his start doing standup as a child. His successful career included having his own Fox television series "The Bernie Mac Show" and starring roles in "Ocean's Eleven," ''Bad Santa," ''Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" and "Transformers."

Childress said Mac, who maintained a home in the south Chicago suburb of Frankfort, was a loving father, husband and grandfather. Childress, 30, is Mac's only child.