Cookie Johnson, neé Earlitha Kelly, has been married to basketball legend Magic Johnson for 25 years years, having dated him for 12 years prior to that. They were only married for 45 days and recently found out they were expecting their first child when Magic was diagnosed HIV positive. Cookie has just written her first book called Believing in Magic in which she discusses her relationship with Magic and raising their family that includes her stepson Andre and their children Earvin III, known as EJ, and daughter Elisa. Among the topics she covers is how they came to accept EJ’s homosexuality. Cookie has known that her son was gay since he was 13. EJ came out to Magic later and it sounds like Magic had a harder time with it than Cookie did.
In Cookie Johnson’s book, “Believing in Magic,” the basketball superstar’s wife recalls how she and her husband struggled with their son EJ’s sexuality.
Cookie says teachers at EJ’s preschool noted that he gravitated to wearing Disney princess costumes from the dressup box. Cookie attempted to have EJ play sports — but while other boys were yelling, “Hit the ball to me!” EJ would be in the outfield picking flowers.
Eventually, Cookie began surreptitiously purchasing Barbie dolls for EJ and found he was drawn to the villains like Cruella DeVil — “They had capes, dramatic makeup, and attitude. Swagger.” Cookie only allowed her boy to play with them in his room, unbeknownst to her Laker husband. However one day Magic came upon his son playing dolls and snatched them away, decreeing, “I don’t want EJ playing with these dolls anymore. Boys don’t do that.”
On a family vacation to Hawaii when EJ was 13, Cookie overheard her son and a pal catcalling boys in bathing suits and realized her son was gay.
When EJ insisted on telling his father, Magic told him that although he still loved him, he was “very disappointed” and didn’t approve. However the next day Magic apologized and told EJ that he was in fact very proud of him and “you have my full support, no matter what.”
I applaud their candor on addressing this. Most parents want to believe they never let their children down. Cookie and Magic are devout Christians and said that their faith was both the reason that they struggled with EJ’s sexuality and where they found the strength to accept it. I admire that they put the onus on themselves and not on EJ. I’m impressed that Magic apologized for his hurtful words the next day. Many a proud person would have found an excuse not to. EJ stars on the reality show Rich Kids of Beverly Hills. He seems like a blast.
Photo credit: WENN and Fame/Flynet Photos
Typo: diagnosed HIV postition instead of ‘positive’
He is on Rich Kids Of Beverly Hills and seems like a spoiled brat. If I was his parent that’s what I’d have a problem with.
yes I have watched that a couple of times they are all irritating him included. I can’ waste my brain power on that stuff.
I watched half of one episode. Its bad enough that the cast is so clueless and entitled but the storyline was that he had a thing with his sisters current boyfriend. I noped the hell out of that mess forever.
On his show,EJ in NY,he seemed to be the least spoiled of the group.
Locke, amen!
Well y’know. Good for them for overcoming the prejudice they had.
Mind you, I don’t know what Barbies have got to do with it. When I was little, I ignored all Barbies given to me for birthdays and Christmas by well meaning friends and relatives in favour of playing with Action Men. My brother would parade around the house wearing my mother’s dressing gowns, slippers and hats. We are both straight adults. Playing with the “wrong” gender toys and dress-ups isn’t an indication of future sexuality most of the time. It’s just kids playing.
Exactly. My son had a dolly buggy, he put soft toys/trucks and buses in and pushed it around wherever we went 🙂
I think it shows how deeply ingrained gender stereotyping is and how early it starts. A child playing with the opposite gender toys has no bearing on their sexuality. Ditto playing with toys designated for their own gender.
Agree, LAK. My first thought was those examples don’t necessarily indicate he is gay, but if they had bought into gender stereotypes and the “rules” about girls and boys toys, I could see why they look at it as evidence. Hopefully more and more parents are moving away from that though.
I’m glad they have all gotten through it and have a good relationship, but I can’t say I have any interest in a person who stars in that kind a reality show.
This was 20+ years ago,things have changed slightly.
This exactly. I played with dolls, blocks, played cops and robbers, climbed trees, built dolly houses out of cardboard, played stick, football, dress up etc., My male cousins would play dolly house with us and many school play mates who were boys would play Mississippi with us girls. Nobody cared and no adults made a fuss. They were just glad to have us out from under foot.
There really are no clear indicators of orientation sometimes. I knew one girl who was the epitome of tomboy as rough and tumble as they come. She’s a teacher now and straight as can be. Then there’s another girl in my Primary school who all us kids suspected was gay (she’s actually bisexual) even though she wore pretty dresses at fairs and sports events (we wore uniforms the rest of the time) and decorate her long hair with pretty barrettes and ribbons. She would have been twelve at the time.
OMG same here. All the children in our neighborhood would play together all day all kinds of games. Those times were really safer for children to stay outside by themselves. My brother made a wood sword for me to fight the “enemies” from another palace because he thought I ought to have one as well as the boys. I didn’t have dolls just because there were not many aviable to buy (poor times) but I didn’t really miss them. We used to climb trees and run together as a group. I used to wear whatever I wanted pants, dresses. Nobody questioned each other sexuality.
I remember my father though, the day he heard I had the first menstruation he prohibited me to go play outside. He told me you are a grown up now, a woman. It was strange to me as I was 13 and I didn’t feel any different. That’s when people started treating me differently but just for a while as i failed to have boobs for years LOL.
THIS. This gender-stereotyping thing irks me just as much as when people call it a “lifestyle,” even when they are trying to be supportive.
As a side moment of annoyance: It bugs me, as an LGBT person, to have straight people extravagantly praised for coming around on horrible attitudes and for NOT being homophobic. I get it, I get it: people have to be challenged on ingrained ideas, not everyone is woke, etc. etc. It still irks me that so many straight people who come around get so much praise for doing something they should have been doing from the jump.
@Turtle I am straight and that annoys me, too. I have a relative who makes a big point about how she now accepts people being gay because she met a gay guy who she became friends with and finally realized that LGBT people are human beings too. It’s sad to me that she didn’t get that earlier and that it wasn’t until she was middle aged that it clicked.
@Antigone I go back-and-forth all the time about this. Sometimes I just want to say, “Congratulations on finally getting your head out of your a$$.”
@I Choose Me: Fantastic call.
I should be editing instead of re-posting but literally, IChooseMe, I couldn’t agree more. I’m 36 and STILL very confused about my sexuality…been married once for 5 years, had Lille ‘flings’ with women, always said I was my fathers only son and also that I was a gay guy (for the record, I’m a ‘straight’ female, but…) I appreciate your leveling of what is simplistically materialistic, especially considering the DEPTH OF FEELING involved in our identifications…its fantastically dead-on.
Sorry, I just can’t get behind any of those “rich kid” shows. As I was told and I’ll tell my future kiddo, “we (your parents) have money. You do not”.
Honestly he strikes me as transgendered. And whoever does his makeup needs a new career.
It speaks volumes of Magic that he apologised so quickly. My mom still thinks she was somewhat justified in repeatedly calling me a dyke because she “was just worried”.
Rich kid reality shows are the worst. I dont understand why anyone would enjoy that.
Wow, Josefina, so sorry to hear that! That’s hurtful no matter your orientation. When I was in college, my mom told me she was afraid I’d never get married. Thanks mom! I don’t know what parents are thinking when they say these things.
The part of the article that mentioned parents never wanting to admit that they let their kids down hit me hard. My mom will retell stories from the past with her shinning bright and that was.not.reality. It makes what happened hurt again, tbh, and is really infuriating.
I’ve worked with Mr Johnson before and he is a lovely, lovely man. I’m sure he was initially shocked, but his compassion and love for his son quickly won out.
Was it harder for them than to realize that Magic probably cheated on Cookie in order to catch HIV?
You don’t “catch” HIV.
She was aware they he was not faithful prior to his diagnosis.
This comment made me think of the Sesame Street song (and the life lesson for a 3-yr-old that you may have missed) “one of these things is not like the other”.
^^^^ THIS
Poor Cookie. And not bc her Son is Gay/Trans either. And not just bc Magic is/was always a serial cheater. But rather bc guess it looks like she only stays for either the money or to keep her family together. Seems like she is literally trapped with Magic but stays bc she will miss the lifestyle it provides for her and any children under 18. (looks like they are all grown anyway.)
That sucks.
I Love EJ Hard (so Opulent! Makes me giggle so much!) but I Truly Love His Parents for Stepping out of themselves and Embracing/understanding/supporting their son Wholesale, especially with a Churchy Background and surely their own families and probably the Black Community at large which would have given them a pass if they had chosen to shun him
This exactly. QQ is here with some truth, as usual! I give the Johnsons major props for that.
Accepting her’s son’s sexuality was probably a walk in the park compared to her husband’s infidelity and HIV status (due to sleeping with multipleeee women).