NBA legend Magic Johnson has spoken about the time he had to tell his wife that he was HIV positive.
The couple had been married just over a month when LA Lakers team doctor Micahel Mellman told him that he had HIV in 1991. Cookie was pregnant at the time.
“It was hard because I loved her so much and I hated to hurt her,” he told Gayle King. “I’ve played against some of the best basketball players in the world, right? I’ve been in championships. I’ve been in nine [NBA] Finals, so I know pressure. But there was no greater pressure than driving home to tell her.”
“The key moment was when Cookie took the test and the results came back that her and the baby was fine,” Johnson said. “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.”
Watch the clip below.
“If I was going to die, I was going to die being Earvin Johnson”: 30 years after coming forward with his HIV diagnosis, NBA legend @MagicJohnson sits down for an exclusive interview with @GayleKing to discuss what his life has been like since.
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