*Magic Johnson’s wife Cookie Johnson sat down with Oprah Winfrey on her “Super Soul Sunday” series and shared her inner struggle after their son EJ revealed that he was gay. EJ publicly came out in 2013 when photos surfaced of him holding hands with his then boyfriend.
During the interview, which aired on OWN on last week, Cookie said, “This was one of those moments where I had to go directly to God and I prayed… and the answer I got back was love.”
Oprah asked her, “You’re Christian, you believe in the word, you live by the word. How did you reconcile what Christianity says about being gay with your loving of your son… and still remaining Christian?”
READ RELATED STORY: Student Arrested after Wearing Gorilla Mask and Handing Out Bananas at Black Lives Matter Protest (Watch)
Cookie replied, “That was a very hard thing for me. That was a very, very hard thing for me. I tried everything, but finally I just said to myself, ‘This child is innocent. He was like this when he was a baby, it can’t be wrong. It can’t be wrong.’”
She added, “And [God] said, you know, ‘I give you all great gifts and the greatest of that gift is love,’ and so, that’s when I knew I could love my son and support him on who he was and I was okay with it.”
The “Super Soul Sunday” series airs on OWN every Sunday at 11a/10c & 7/6c. Meanwhile, E.J. currently stars in his own reality show called EJNYC on the E! network.
Magic and Cookie recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary and have raised three children together, Andre, E.J. and Elisa. In a previous interview with Good Morning America, Cookie explained how they came to terms with E.J. being gay.
“I have pictures of all the Little League stuff I put him in and the baseball teams and the football teams. And it just wasn’t his thing. Ultimately you want your child to be happy,” she said.
“But I also knew that Earvin didn’t understand. And I was still trying to figure it out. I’m not going to sit here and say that I understood that he was gay at that time, because I didn’t. I just knew that this is what made him happy. And as time went on, it never changed.”
We Publish News 24/7. Don’t Miss A Story. Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletter Now!
