Throughout Magic Johnson’s athletic career, he was one of the most popular players in the NBA. Of course, there is no question that a huge portion of the reason why Magic was so beloved is that he was an athletic marvel on the court. However, the fact that Magic is a leader wherever he goes played a factor as well. After all, Magic showed a great deal of strength when he revealed that he was HIV positive long before it was common for stars to talk about having that disease. On top of that, unlike a lot of famous athletes who’ve gone broke, Magic became a business leader.
Even though Magic Johnson has accomplished so much in his professional life, that doesn’t mean that he is immune to strife in his personal life. After all, there are lots of highly successful stars who have rocky relationships with their family members. With that in mind, it begs an obvious question, what is Magic’s relationship with his most famous child, his son EJ, like?
Who Is EJ Johnson?
By the time Ej Johnson was born in 1992, his father Magic Johnson already was one of the most famous and beloved athletes in the world. Born into a situation where his dad took up all the air in the room wherever they went together, some people may have learned to fade into the background if they were in EJ’s shoes. However, ever since EJ found his place in the spotlight, it has been clear that he has a captivating presence himself.
Given the fact that his dad is one of the most famous athletes in the world, it is very unlikely that EJ Johnson will ever be one of the celebrity kids who became more famous than their parents. Still, EJ has made a name for himself. After all, EJ joined the cast of the “reality” show Rich Kids of Beverly Hills in 2014 and he appeared in all four seasons of the show.
After he joined the cast of Rich Kids of Beverly Hills, EJ Johnson easily could have been solely defined by his involvement in that “reality” show. Instead, EJ has made his mark on the entertainment world in several ways. After all, he was an E! News commentator, he made several Fashion Police appearances, and he was a guest host for the daytime talk show The Real. On top of that, in 2021 it was announced that EJ was going to voice the character of Michael Collins in the reboot of The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder.
On top of his work in the entertainment business, EJ Johnson has become a social media star with more than 709,000 followers on Instagram as of this writing. Part of the reason for EJ’s massive fan following is that he has become known for his incredible fashion sense.
How Magic Johnson Messed Up When His Son Came Out
In 2013, a TMZ photographer captured a photo of EJ Johnson walking on the Sunset Strip while holding hands with his boyfriend at the time. Since nobody in the Johnson family had ever addressed EJ’s sexual preference at that time, TMZ published the photo like it was a scoop. However, Magic Johnson provided TMZ with a lovely statement since he was well aware of EJ’s sexual preference at that time. "Cookie and I love EJ and support him in every way. We're very proud of him."
Unfortunately, even though it is wonderful that Magic Johnson has urged parents to accept their children for who they are in past interviews, he wasn’t able to do that at first. Instead, it has been revealed that when EJ came out to his dad, Magic handled the situation poorly at first.
In 2018, EJ Johnson and his mom Cookie Johnson made an appearance on Willow and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Red Table Talk. During the resulting conversation, Cookie revealed that when EJ came out to his parents, it “was a little tough” because Magic Johnson wasn’t supportive at first.
"My husband is the type of person, he reacts quickly, so everything that came to the top of his head, he just let it out and I was like, it hurt my feelings and I know it probably hurt his feelings when he'd go, 'It's not what I wanted for my son and do you realize what you're saying because the world is not going to like that and do you want to live this life?'" Hopefully the parents of all the stars who recently came out handled things better than that.
Since she wasn’t happy with her husband’s conduct, Cookie Johnson spoke to Magic Johnson about how he handled EJ coming out. As EJ went on to explain during the aforementioned Red Table Talk appearance, Magic Johnson apologized to his son after realizing he was in the wrong.
"[Magic] just was like, we're gonna get through this, I just need time and we both just started crying a little bit. But then, I moved to New York to go to college and when he came back to visit, he picked me up for dinner and was like ... he hugged me so hard, he almost broke my back and then at that point I was like, we're gonna be okay. I could really feel the love. We're gonna be fine." From all accounts, Magic and EJ Johnson have remained very close ever since then.