During an appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show, NBA legend Magic Johnson recalled when he told his wife, Cookie Johnson, about his HIV diagnosis, saying that it was “the hardest thing” he “ever had to do” in his life.
“Well, Jennifer, you think about, first of all, God blessed me to be here 34 years later,” the NBA Hall of Famer, who announced his HIV diagnosis in 1991, said, per Complex. “I remember, you thought you had made the right decisions, the right moves, and then this news comes.”
Johnson recalled that his wife was pregnant at the time, and his primary concern was about her health and that of their unborn baby.
“I wasn’t worried about me as much; I was worried about Cookie. She was pregnant with our son EJ, and so how was it going to affect her?” he said.
Johnson said he was ultimately glad Cookie and EJ were healthy after they underwent tests – though he would still never forget the moment he told his wife about his HIV diagnosis.
“When I came home to tell Cookie the news, it was the hardest thing I ever had to do in my life, not to play against Michael [Jordan] or Larry [Bird], but to tell my wife I had HIV,” the NBA champion and businessman said.
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He also said that at the time, his worry had to do with how his wife was going to react to the news. He said that Cookie fortunately assured him that they were going to figure things out, and that made him optimistic about being alive for “a long time.”
“The first thing she said was, ‘Let’s drop down on our knees and start praying,'” Johnson said, per Complex. “And so God has really blessed both of us.”
Following his diagnosis, the 66-year-old has been spreading awareness about HIV and AIDS and helping to tackle the stigma surrounding the deadly disease.
“I wanted to make sure I went out and was able to speak about it, especially in the Black and brown community because the numbers were running very high,” he said. “I went to a lot of churches, I went to a lot of schools, and I made sure I raised the awareness level of HIV and AIDS, and I’m happy I was able to do just that.”
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