Magic Johnson Reflects On How He Felt After HIV Diagnosis

Tomorrow will be the 30-year anniversary of Magic Johnson revealing to the world that he had been diagnosed with HIV. At the time, very little was known about the virus, and it led to a lot of aggressive responses towards Magic. Some NBA stars didn’t want to share the court with him as some thought that the virus could be spread through sweat. It was also believed that Magic had been served a death sentence, however, to this day, HIV cannot be detected in his system due to modern medicinal advances.

With the 30 year anniversary of his diagnosis upon us, Johnson decided to speak to Gayle King of CBS about how he felt when the diagnosis was revealed to him. As he explains, he was in complete shock over it, and he was also terrified of telling his wife Cookie, whom he had been unfaithful with.