Transcript of SPEAK OUT FOR FIRST TIME ON LOVE, AIDS AND MARRIAGE
SPEAK OUT FOR FIRST TIME ON LOVE, AIDS AND MARRIAGE
100 eBONY»Aph! 1992
'The truth is, she has never stopped loving Magic Thafs why she
slapped him— just hauled ojfand smacked him as hard as she
could—when, after telling her he had the virus, he ojfered her an
easy way out ofthe marriage, '
By Laura B. Randolph Senior Staff Editor
Studio Photographs by Harry Langdon
Anticipating birth of their first chi ld. Clooki« li-ts Masit
listi-n to bahy's heartbeat.
\
SHE was just sitting there in the tele- vision rwim, relaxing and
flipping
the channels, when he walked in and shattered her world. At first
she thought she d misunderstood him, tliat her mind was playing
tricks on her.
She coiikln t possibly he hearing him right. He couldn t be telling
her he had the AIDS virus. Not now. Not the month after their
wedding. Not now that they d finally begun their life together as
hus- band and wife. And not now—please, God, not now!—that she was
pregnant with the baby they d talked about having for so
long.
It had to be a mistake. Some cruel hoax. But one Uxïk at Magics
face and Earleatha (Cookie) Johnson knew it was true. "It was, "
she says softly, "your worst nightmare come true."
The tears came in uncontrollable waves ("I don t remember how long
I
Coniinved on Next Page 101
MAGIC & COOKIE continued cried") and as she struggled to absorb
the implications, a rush of emotions vied for control of her mind.
There was shock. / can't believe this w happening. Panic. What
about the hahy}' Anger. How could you let this happen? But the
emotion that triumphed, eclipsing all others, was fear. For herself
and for her man.
"I was so scared—for him and for my- self." she confides in her
first interview sinc'e her husband, Earvin (Magie) John- son,
amiounc-ed he has the AIDS virus. "Just scared to death."
Seeing the depth of her pain. Magic struggled with his own
emotions. "I was angry because Id just gotten married and now I had
to put this on her, " he says, recalling the rush of feelings that
engulfed him after tests for an insurance jxjlicy revealed he had
the AIDS virus. "1 was afraid just to go home and tell her . . . I
kept going back and forth in my mind wondering, "Howean I soften
it? What c-an 1 say?. . ." And Í was shocked liecause I never
thought it could happen
102
to me. " But more than any concern for him-
self he hurt for his wife, the woman who had loved him since they
were college sweethearts at Michigan State. "We d waited so long
and finally we d done it," he says shaking bis head. "I wanted ev-
erything to be perfcict. My whole world was going to be perfect
with her. And then BAMl"
It couldn t help, of course, knowing he was the primary reason it
took 14 years, two postponed wedding dates and, iis Cookie puts it,
"a lot of breaking up and getting back together" for their romance
to niatnre into marriage. "I'd always thought that I couldn t play
bas- ketball and be man'ied," Magic says, in- timating it was the
pressures of his daz- zling pro career that made him wait so long
to commit. Suddenly he stops. As he stares across the room, you can
feel him weighing his next words, deciding just how close to the
truth he wants to take you, how deep he wants it to get.
"I was iifraid," he confides upon re- flection. "The truth is, I
never really let
With Cookie at his side, Magic tells historic press conference that
"because of the HIV virus that I have obtained, I will have to
retire from the Lakers."
her into my world. You work so hard and you ve been used to being
by yourself making all the decisions by yourself and doing it all
alone. Sometimes that's the problem with us being strong Black men.
We feel we can t really let a woman into our world. But that's
wrong, be- cause you know what I found out? All the time I was
thinking she would l>e harm- ful, she was really helpful.
Brothers need to understand that old saying is true: 'Behind every
good man, there's a goixl woman.' No, make that beside ev- ery good
man, there s a good woman."
Though she left her job as a buyer for a Toledo department store
three years ago to move to I^s Angeles, it was only in tlie last
\ear that Magic really let her be- come an integral part of his
life. "She went through everything with me—the games, the pain, the
playoffs—and I'd never really let that happen before," he
confesses. "She helped me so much I said, 'Wow, I should have been
doing this a long time ago.'"
That's exactly what he told her tliat af- tenioon last August when,
while vaca-
EBONY* April 1992 Continued on Page 104
Celebrating the power of their love, couple share tender moments
dancing to Luther Vandfoss' hit song, "The Power of Love. " Magic
says, "We dance to Luther all the
MAGIC & COOKIE continued tioning in the Virgin Islands, he
ealled her in L.A. and told her he was finully ready. "Id been
thinking al>out her ev- ery day," he remembers. "I tried to get
her to marry me the next week. I didn t want to wait an\- longer."
Three weeks later they wed. "It was the best thing I ever did, " he
says, breaking into his sig- nature light-up-the-night smile.
Magic and Cookie are sitting, hands entwined, in a photographers
studio in Beverly Hills. Cookie is explaining why she doesn't
like—and rarely gives—in- terviews. "I prefer the background," she
says, finding and holding her husband's gaze. "I'm much more
comfortable there. "
In person, she is much taller (5'8") and thinner {size 4) than she
appears in her photographs. In íact, though she is well into her
pregnancy, save for a slight bulge in her midrifi she's still taut,
lean, willowy.
"You'll be fine," Magic assures her, pulling her close and
smoothing her
104
hair. "I'm going to step outside so you can talk woman to woman.
But I'll be close if you need me. '
"I wanted everything to be perfeet. My whole world was going to be
perfect with her. And then BAM!"
—Magic Johnson
Magic and Cookie have been close since 1977 when, as college
freshmen, they met at a party. "It was so funny be- cause every
girl on campus wanted to meet him," Cookie remembers ofthe night
she first set eyes on Magic. "I just thought forget it. There's no
way he's going to pick me over all these other women. "
Wiiich, of a>urse, he did—although he waited until she was
leaving to ask for her phone number. "1 said, 'What?
You've never asked me to dance, never had a conversation with me. .
. . ' But he said hed watched me the whole night," she says
wistfully.
And their 14-year love affair began. Though she's stayed the course
with
Magic, it wasn't always easy. In addition to the normal
complexities of love. Cookie had so much more to deal with. Anyone
as famous—as adored—as Magic comes with a lot of baggage: the
press, the groupies, the incessantly in- trusive lifestyle. And
there was also Magics obsession with basketball, his complete and
total preoccupation with the game. "It wasn't always easy," she ac-
knowledges. "There was a lot of break- ing up and getting back
together, a lot of ups and downs. We've been through ev- erything
together."
Part of "everything" was Magic's at- traction to other women and
his enor- mous appeal to them. As the most lumi- nous star in
basketball, he could have as many women as he wanted. And though
she sat there looking so composed, so se-
EBONY» April 1992
time." The basketball legend has received thousands of letters and
bas become, in bis words, a national "educator" on tbe AIDS
epidemic.
rene, as Magic told the world lie con- tracted the AIDS virus from
un- protected sex and that the women he had slept with were so
numerous he couldn t be sure who had infected him, she could not
help being concerned.
"Whatever the price, she was in for the duration."
THE truth is, she has never stopped loving Magic—a fact she felt
he, of
all people, should know. That s why she slapped him—^just hauled
off and smacked him as hard as she could—- when, after telling her
he had the virus, he offered her an easy way out of the
marriage.
"I told her I would understand com- pletely if she wanted to
leave," he re- calls. "I couldn't even get the words out of my
mouth before she slapped me. . . . My grandmother and mother always
told me Black women are strong, hut I'm just now finding out what
they
EBONY «April 1992
THE impetus that spurs Magic Johnson's declared war on
AIDS is the high incidence of the disease in Black America. Ac-
cording to the Center for Disease Control, of all people diagnosed
with AIDS (206,392), almost one- third (60,037) are Blaek.
In New York and New Jersey, AIDS is the No. 1 killer of Black women
aged 15 to 44. The national numbers are just as frightening. More
than half (52 percent) of all women with AIDS are Black. For Black
children and babies, the num- bers are wi)rse: of the 3,471
children with AIDS, 1,844 (53 percent) are Blaek. And of all babies
Iwrn wi -h AIDS, a startling 58 percent are Black. Almost 50,000
Black men have been diagnosed with AIDS. That means one out of four
inen di- agnosed with AIDS is Biack.
meant. . . . I don't know of many women who would have stayed in
this situation. "
That's probably because there aren't many. Frankly, there isn t a
person on earth who would fault Cookie if she left. After all, the
only reason she is in this situation i.s because of Magics failure
to practice safe sex. Which leads right back to the critical
question, the one every- body wants to know: Why didn't she just
pack her bags and walk?
"I love him very much and I always have," she says slowly, trying
to find a way to express what she feels. "We've been together off
and on for 14 years and the love that we've built up over that time
period is what I hold on to. There's no way—even though something
like this happened—that I was going to just throw it all away and
not stand by him and leave him to deal with it by himself There's
no way I would do that.'"
That's exactly what she told Magic— after she slapped him. Whatever
it took, whatever the price, she was in for the duration. "I never
even tliought about
Continued on Next Page 105
Meeting with President flush on his first visit to White House as a
member of the National Commis- sion on AIDS, Commissioner Johnson
urges the president to get more involved in tlie fight against
AIDS. "No matter how good the team may be," he told the president,
"it won t win the championship without the owner fully in the
game,"
MAGIC & COOKIE continued leaving," slie says. "To stay by him
was not a hard thing to do."
Then the tabloid rumors started— how she has moved out of the
bedroom and into tlie maid s quarters. How she is so terrified the
baby will get the virus she is agonizing over whether or not to
have an abortion. How she is so scared of contracting the virus she
won t even let Magic touch her, never mind make love to her.
Cookie lauglis when you teU her these stories. "All of those rumors
are false," she says. Aside from severe morning sickness ("My first
three months I was sick morning, noon and night"), she is feeling
fine, she says— emotionally and physically. Though medical experts
warn it can take as long as six months for AIDS antibodies to show
up in the blood system, she has tested negative twice and wants
everyone to know her doctors feel confident both she and the baby
are out of tlie woods.
As for their marriage, "it has only got- ten stronger, it s just
fine, " she discloses. Ditto for their sex life. As Magic puts it,
"We are still doing our thing. " In fact, he says, the only
restriction the doctors have placed on physical intimacy "is that
we can t have unprotected sex"—a stip- ulation Cookie maintains she
is "very c-omfortable" with.
"We ve been together forever and there is nothing that is going to
keep us 106
apart. . . ," she says, dismissing all the gossip with a wave of
her hand. "I hon- estly feel that the Lord is going to heal him and
that we arc going to live to- gether forever and have more children
and be happy. I honestly feel that."
And there is something about the way she says it, about the way her
face softens whenever she looks at Magic or says his name, that
makes you know she means it—that this isn t just a public re-
lations answer or wishful thinking on a California morning.
But to understand her faith, you have to understand one fundamental
thing about Cookie Johnson. She loves Magic. Totally. Completely.
Unflinchingly. And that love has made her strong—strong like a
rock. And that strength is what Magic is holding on to, what is
getting him through. "Between Cod and her," he says softly, "they
give me the strength to carry on. "
That, and his belief that he has been chosen to carr)' a message.
Tm doing the Lord's work. . . ," he says, referring to his
determination to prevent "a gener- ation of Black Americans from
being devastated" by AIDS.
"Before, I was on my agenda. Now I m on God's agenda. . . ," he
says. "They told me I went from being a leader on the basketball
court to a leader among people, especially my people . . . and Tm
trying to learn how to handle it.
I don't know yet what it all entails but I'm ready for it. I'm
ready to lead my people."
In the five months since be stood at the podium in the Great
Western Fo- nini in Inglewood, Calif., and forever changed the way
America in general and Black America in particular thinks about
AIDS, he has spent countless hours trav- eling the country
educating young peole about responsible sex ('I tell them absti-
nence is liest but if not, use a condom "), joined, at President
Bush's personal re- quest, the National Commission on AIDS, and
formed The Magic Johnson Foundation to raise money for the re-
search and development of a cure.
Still, even braced by their faith. Magic and Cookie admit their
lives are far from worry free. While they're hope- ful, even
optimistic, about the future, they are also mindful of the virulent
na- ture of this disease. Yes, concedes Cookie, the thought of "not
having him around to watch our child grow up, of us not growing old
together" sometimes haunts her. She stops, looks away, un- able to
finish. "But if that's what the Lord chooses to do, then that's the
way I'll have to deal with it, ' she says softly.
And sometimes—-not often Init some- times—Magic, too, can hear the
faint echo of his mortality, he can sense its fleeting footsteps.
"If God says that it's my time, then it's my time, " he says qui-
etly. "Death doesn't scare me."
But he's only 32 years old, the age when most people are just
beginning to comprehend lite, not contemplating death. How can he
be so calm, so san- guine?
"I guess because I have so much to be thankful for, " he says with
the serenity of a man who has made peace with himself his life, his
choices. "I've won champion- ships, been around the world, and I
was able to finally marry her. And hopefully we'll have a big,
strong healthy baby and they'll live on. And I'm hoping and pray-
ing and I/et'/ that I'm going to be here with them. "
And if not? "If not," he says gently, "I know that I've saved a lot
of lives. I know this world will líe a better place because of what
iVe done. No matter what hap- pens to me, I hope that I will make a
difference. And no matter what, I've had a good time. "
Not that the good times are over— they aren't, he insists. Not by
any means. "Nothing has changed. I'm feel- ing as strong as ever, "
he says, noting the AZT treatments he started shortly after he
announced he had the virus have had no side effects, thougli his
doctors have decided to try some other things. "
EBONY-Aprii 1992
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His daily four-mile run and workout.s at the gym are keeping him in
shape for the summer Olympics, and next year he will lead a U. S.
all-star team in a series of games abroad. And who knows? he says.
If he continues to feel this strong he may even return to play for
the Lakers. "I haven't ruled out coming back," he con- cedes.
But all that is in the distant future. Right now, he says
apologetically, he has to say g(K)dbye. He is meeting Michael
Jackson across town in 15 minutes, then he and C ookie are catching
a plane to Hawaii. As they head for their waiting
EBONY-April 1992
limousine, Luther Vandross' "The Power of Love" comes on the radio.
Magic stops, draws Cookie close to him, and begins to sing to her.
"We've gpt love power, it's the greatest power of them all,' he
sings through heilf-closed eyes.
Standing together, swaying to the mu- sic, they radiate a sense of
strength. Tliougli he is in the throes of a life and death battle,
at this m<inient you feel he is capable of weathering any storm,
of going on, even if no one else with this disease ever has.
How many times has he been told the game was over, that there was
no way he
aiuld win? And how many times has he defied all odds, every
probability, to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat? And the
only thing at stake then was a game.
"Love is strong, " he says, l)efore dis- appearing into the limo s
backseat. As they slice througli the palm-tree-lined streets of
Beverly Hills, you can t help wondering if their love will be
strong enough to sustain him—how long it will lie able to hold
ofFthe devastating conse- quences of this harrowing disease. Only
time will tell. This much, though, is cer- tain: Tlieir love has
the (xjwer of Magic.
Continued on Nexf Page 107
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