Cookie Admits Magic Johnson Called Off Wedding 3 Times + Says When He Discovered HIV Status, He Locked Himself In Bathroom To Tell Ex Lovers

Magic & Cookie Johnson celebrate 25th wedding anniversary in Venice

Magic Johnson’s wife, Cookie, is sharing new, private details about how she and the legendary NBA player handled him discovering he had HIV, back in 1991. In her new memoir, ‘Believing in Magic‘, she explains that they had only been married for six weeks and she was pregnant with their first child, EJ, at the time. She also says that at the time, Magic couldn’t remember who he had sex with and he actually called each woman that he recalled being intimate with, to tell them the devastating news.

She writes:

In just one moment our world, this perfect union we’d fought so hard and so long to have was obliterated.

As to how she learned about the situation, she says, Magic called her and said,

I’m coming home early because I have to tell you something. I have to talk to you, but I’m on my way to the doctor’s office right now. I’ll tell you what’s going on when I get home, Cookie. I can’t tell you over the phone.

Magic & Cookie Johnson

At the time, she asked him:

What’s wrong, do you have AIDS or something?

Johnson said nothing. Later, when they met face-to-face, she says,

My husband walked toward me, took my hand into his and slowly marched me back into the den…the two of us sat at the foot of our huge chaise lounge and I held my breath.

Nonetheless, she decided that despite Johnson telling her she could leave, she was staying. She told him,

We’re going to beat this together.

Cookie & Magic with their daughter Elisa

Later, she says Johnson

locked himself in a room and called the long list of women with whom he’d been intimate.

Cookie & Magic’s son E.J. Johnson

Johnson was told by doctors that he had three years to live. She also says she was terrified that she and the child had contracted HIV.

Every morning I would wake up in a panic, worried that I too might be HIV positive and die. Or worse, that my baby would be sick and not make it. The stress coursed through my veins like a poison, occupying practically every moment of my day.

Magic & Cookie Johnson

Ultimately, the tests were negative. In the book, Cookie also goes into detail about how Johnson was unfaithful while they were dating in college, sharing a situation when she discovered he was with another woman she writes:

This would be the first of many times in our romance journey that (Johnson’s) fear of commitment and penchant for alpha male dominance would tear us apart.

During the next 12 years they repeatedly got back together and made up again. In fact, Johnson called off their wedding three times. Cookie says that third engagement ended over Johnson’s refusal to cancel his notorious Lakers pool party – which was men-only and frequented by strippers, groupies and promiscuous women.

Cookie’s memoir will be released September 20, 2016 and is now available for pre-order. 

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