Photo Credit: Magic Johnson/Instagram
Magic Johnson just made the 30 year mark on having HIV and opened up on CBS Mornings about what his journey with the disease has been like. After just getting married as well as recently getting her pregnant, one would think this would be a rough moment for him … preparing to share this devastating news with his new wife, and that’s exactly what it was. He said, “It was hard because I loved her so much and I hated to hurt her.” His wife Cookie Johnson was worried about him but supportive.
“It wasn’t how he got it that was important to me. It was, ‘You’re possibly going to die.’ And that trumped everything,” Cookie Johnson said. “At that time, people weren’t educated so they thought you couldn’t touch people. You couldn’t hug people. And I didn’t want people to treat us like we were lepers.”
Instead of going into hiding, Johnson continued having a public life to lessen the stigma by playing on the 1992 NBA All-Star Team as well as the “Dream Team” at the Olympics. “It proved to be the right decision,” Magic Johnson said. “It helped people who were living with not just HIV and AIDS, but with any disease, that you can live on, you can be — live a productive life.”
What changed everything was his wife getting tested. He said, “The key moment was when Cookie took the test and the results came back that she and the baby were fine.” He continued, “I wanted to make sure that she was going to be okay, the baby was going to be okay, and then I can move forward with making sure I was going to be okay.” His HIV is currently undetectable with him taking medication daily to make sure that he’s in good health.
In other Magic Johnson news, he has a 4 part docuseries that’s just been ordered for Apple TV Plus. While it has yet to be named, his creative team includes: Director Rick Famuyiwa, Editor Dirk Westervelt and Cinematographer Rachel Morrison, produced by New Slate Ventures and XTR Production in association with H.Wood Media and Delirio Films.
Would you tune in to a Magic Johnson docuseries?
