NBA legend "Magic" Johnson is best-known for his skills on the basketball court, but he's
also a devoted family man. Father to three children, Johnson has inspired his brood to
get involved in a variety of different creative pursuits. Here's your look inside the lives
of Magic's kids; EJ, Andre, and Elisa.
Magic Johnson has been crowned NBA MVP three times, and as of October 2020, had a whopping
$600 million net worth — but, even so, his kids swear they grew up like the rest of us.
Speaking with The New York Times, EJ insisted that he's, quote, "not just some other rich
girl," and during an interview with Just the Sip, he debunked the misconceptions created
by his stint on Rich Kids of Beverly Hills.
"This chain's $26,000, this one's $50,000, so, you know, we'll keep it under $200 for
you, ok? OK great. Put it on daddy's card? Put it on daddy's card."
He explained to the outlet,
"People just assumed that all my friends were like, super-duper wealthy. […] To be quite
honest, like, [the show] was the first time when I started hanging out with a group of
kids who were, like, uber-duper wealthy, too — that was different to me."
"Go hit up Hermes. I need to get a breakup Birkin. Oh my God, how much is that one gonna
cost? Who cares?"
Meanwhile, Elisa confirmed to CR Fashion Book that the Johnson household is just like any
other — with a few exceptions. She said,
"I had a totally normal upbringing — my dad was just my dad. The only difference was
that people would come up to us a lot and ask for photos, or we would need security
for certain trips. As a young girl I was proud because I thought my dad was a superhero."
EJ Johnson's parents are extremely supportive of his orientation, but that wasn't always
the case. Getting candid on a 2018 episode of Red Table Talk, his mom, Cookie, said she
had a feeling her son might be gay when he was three years old. She recalled,
"That's when he started wanting to put on the princess costumes at school. […] [At]
five years old, we put him in sports, and instead of catching the ball, he's in the
field picking flowers."
"I always kind of like gravitated towards playing with like Barbies and make-believe,
like I was always like some queen or some princess."
It wasn't until they took a family trip to Hawaii that Cookie noticed a 15-year-old EJ
checking out boys on the beach, that she decided to say something. She remembered,
"The talk wasn't, 'You can't be this.' The talk was, 'Do you think you are?' […] It
wasn't easy. We're from the Midwest — everything is straight-laced."
"I like to meet guys, like, either like at places that I would go to, that I enjoy going
to, you know what I'm saying? Like, Barney's." As for Magic, his initial reaction was tinged
with disappointment. But EJ remembered his dad later telling him,
"'We're going to get through this and, you know, I just need time.' […] We both just
kind of started crying a little bit." "At that point, I was like, we're gonna be
ok."
Five years later, in 2013, EJ came out in public when TMZ caught him holding hands with
a man on the Sunset Strip. He told Gwist,
"It was almost as if I was coming out of the closet again."
EJ has been known to rock bold makeup, colorful wigs, and, as The New York Times called it,
a quote, "gender-diverse wardrobe," which has resulted in speculation about his identity.
Not one to shy away from his truth, in 2019, he told Just the Sip that he's not really
interested in labels, adding,
"I like myself the way that I am."
"People are so quick to like you know, say like 'Oh just because like you're dressing
like that means that you're gonna transition to become a woman."]
Asked about the possibility of ever transitioning in the future, he explained,
"I always say that I think that if you feel like, you know, you're not in the right body,
then, by all means, get to where you want to be. […] This is the body that I'm supposed
to be in and I can dress it up, mild to wild. Dress it down. Wear nothing at all. I can
be butch. I can be fem. I can do whatever I want with it. I don't feel the need to transition.
[…] I'm just very comfortable in my own skin."
"I don't just get out there, like, all willy-nilly. Like, there would be, like, choreography."
When she was three days old, Elisa was adopted by Magic and Cookie Johnson, and as she told
CR Fashion Book, she felt like a part of the family from the very beginning. Her parents
also never hid her history, and she finally met her birth mother, Dawn, when she turned
18. The pair even filmed a candid reunion scene for EJNYC in 2016. Admitting that it's
always a rush to see her biological mother, Elisa said,
"I always get a little nervous before I see my birth mom, and I think she does too because
we're both very emotional people."
Dawn also shared their adoption story in a 2010 blog post, revealing she was 17 when
she got pregnant. She was then sent to live with her dad in California and find an adoptive
family there. After leaving her baby at the hospital, Dawn said,
"[I] cried for hours. I tried to make myself believe that I was doing the right thing,
or saying this is what is best for her, but I was just angry."
As Dawn confessed on EJNYC, the heartbreak in making that difficult decision has stayed
with her for life. "It's rare that you can have this much happiness
and this much joy, and be like, and this much healing."
After years of dieting, EJ underwent gastric sleeve surgery when he was 22 years old. E!
News confirmed that the reality star had gone under the knife in August 2014 after hinting
at the procedure on an episode of Rich Kids of Beverly Hills. He said,
"A lot of people think it's the easy way out, but it's not. […] It's a step in the right
direction."
"Kind of like, give myself a push and you know, work towards becoming a new me."
By October, EJ had lost 50 pounds. Revealing that he had been considering the procedure
for two years before getting it done, he explained to People magazine,
"Nothing was working, and I wanted to make a more permanent decision to get back on track.
I wanted to wait until I was a little bit older to know how to handle myself afterwards."
Jump to March 2016, and EJ had lost 180 pounds and was keeping it off through diet and exercise.
He told E! he swapped large meals for snacking throughout the day, and had hired a personal
trainer. As he gushed to Page Six,
"[I'm] completely dedicated to living a new, healthy lifestyle. It's given me a whole new
view on life."
If there's one thing the Johnson kids have in common with their parents, it's that they
all believe in giving back. First, there was Magic Johnson, who, in 1991, revealed his
HIV diagnosis, retired from the Lakers, and went on to become a passionate advocate for
HIV and AIDS education and testing. EJ was privy to the cause early on, accompanying
his parents to fundraisers at Elizabeth Taylor's house when he was just a kid, and eventually
began his own advocacy for the LGBTQ community.
"This was one of those moments where I had to go directly to God. And I prayed, and God,
you know, the answer I got back was love." Meanwhile, mom Cookie Johnson is a proud supporter
of the Ladylike Foundation, which serves young women in underprivileged communities. Daughter
Elisa also helps out with the foundation, but she hopes to do much more than that. She
told W magazine she wants to work with kids who have experienced foster care and adoption,
explaining,
"I know what it's like to feel sometimes like you're not whole, that something's missing."
Along with advocating for HIV and AIDS awareness, as of 2020, Elisa is also running a blog called
Selected By Elisa. The site states:
"Curated by Elisa herself, Selected is a platform to amplify Black achievements in fashion,
beauty, advocacy, and beyond. [It] also aims to provide resources to help activate change."
The example EJ has set has given his fans the courage to be just as confident in themselves.
An outspoken advocate for LGBTQ rights, EJ used his time on Rich Kids of Beverly Hills
and its spinoff, EJNYC, to bring a voice to underserved communities. He told The New York
Times,
"There wasn't any show that profiled a young person of color with a different sexual orientation
living their life. I'm not just some other rich girl who's trying to get a show."
"Whether it's the African American community, or in my case, the gay community, it's important
to make sure that we represent those communities in a positive way."
EJ has also worked with Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Fund, which aims to eliminate LGBTQ
youth homelessness, and in 2017, he moderated a Beautycon panel called "The Gender Revolution."
It's no wonder then that the LGBTQ-friendly HRC Foundation announced it would honor EJ
with an award during the organization's Time to THRIVE conference in 2019. Director Vincent
Pompei noted, via On Top Magazine,
"[EJ is] a powerful role model to LGBTQ youth everywhere, […] showing through his work
to end LGBTQ homelessness that all young people deserve a safe and inclusive place to thrive,
and an equal chance to succeed.
Andre may be the most low-profile Johnson kid, but we do know that he followed in his
dad's footsteps... sort of. When Magic's oldest son got his degree in Business Management
from Santa Monica College in 2002, he had already been working in A&R at Elektra Entertainment
for three years. But even though he was collaborating with top tier talent, he decided to leave
it all behind in 2004 to join his father's company, Magic Johnson Enterprises, which
supports businesses and creates jobs in multicultural communities.
Andre later switched gears and set his sights on entrepreneurship, as the VP of Business
Development at Mythical Games. The dad of two also calls himself a "Chief Inspiration
Officer" on Instagram and lives up to the Johnson family name in everything he does.
Magic tweeted in February 2020,
"Andre makes me proud every single day because he is a tremendous father, husband, and astute
businessman."
Magic's NBA career is unrivaled. Not only is he one of the NBA's Top 50 Players of all
time, but he's also a Basketball Hall of Fame-er and, even after his 1991 retirement, he continued
making waves in the League. In 1993, he became Head Coach of the Lakers, and in 1994, he
purchased an ownership share in the team. So when Elisa showed a talent for basketball
early on, it was assumed she'd join the WNBA and become the next Johnson sports star. But
Elisa had a different perspective. She told W magazine,
"It actually made me not want to do it, because it was a lot of pressure. When [my dad] would
come [to games], I would get more nervous. I remember this one time, I got hit in the
face with a ball because I was freaking out that he was at my game."
It wasn't until ninth grade that she officially decided basketball wasn't her thing, after
her team didn't make it into the playoffs. She said of the moment she knew,
"Everyone was crying, and I wasn't crying."
"I'm actually a really good dancer. No one knows."
After realizing sports were not her calling, Elisa set her sights on a career in entertainment.
In addition to building her Instagram presence — where she had roughly 390,000 followers,
as of October 2020 — she told CR Fashion Book,
"I want to make a name for myself in the fashion and entertainment worlds. A major goal of
mine is to have my own sunglasses line as they’re kind of my signature piece. I’ve
also always wanted to be a performer slash singer. That’s my greatest passion, but
I do worry about how harsh the industry can be."
"I feel like I need a leather jacket. Or some type of biker. And a sunglass. I can't leave
my house without a sunglass."
Speaking with Ssense, Elisa proclaimed,
"I have a lot of dreams, because I was blessed with a lot of talents. I've been in love with
singing and performing since I was six years old. […] I went to FIT, because I felt like
fashion came easy to me. But designing is something you really have to apply yourself
to and you can't really have a social life — and I kind of want to have a social life.
So I thought, 'What if I did fashion business?' I want to be a businesswoman. I think long-term.
The fun stuff can come after."
Johnson wasn't just Magic on the basketball court — he also worked plenty of magic with
the ladies, back in the day. U.S. Olympic women's basketball team alum and close friend
Pamela McGee told Radar Online,
"[Magic] was a notorious womanizer. He had thousands during his career."
"It was more, you know, we had fun and then that was it."
One of those women was allegedly Renee Perkins, who claims the pair met in 1981, also saying
that Johnson quickly dumped her after learning she had become pregnant the following year.
In January 2017, she alleged that her then-35-year-old son, Chauncey, was actually Johnson's secret
love child. In order to back up her claims, she reportedly showed Radar Online a, quote,
"letter from her attorney and a Los Angeles lab," proving that she and Johnson had taken
blood tests in 1982 to establish paternity. However, she claims she never got her hands
on the results. Looks like the jury is still out on that alleged connection.
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