Danny Pintauro says he has been struggling with HIV for 12 years and now that he opens up about it, he wants to raise awareness of the disease.
- Sep 28, 2015
AceShowbiz - Danny Pintauro opened up on his health struggles. The former "Who's the Boss?" actor told Oprah Winfrey that he's HIV positive. "I wanted to tell you this a long time ago, but I wasn't ready - I'm ready now, that I'm HIV positive, and I have been for 12 years," he revealed.
"It's just a big deal. It's not something that people are talking about right now," the actor said during a "Where Are They Now " interview, adding that he "missed the opportunity to be a beacon of light for gay kids who were going through what I was going through because I was outed."
He explained how he contracted HIV, saying that drug use caused him to become complacent about unprotected sex. "Crystal meth takes away your inhibitions ... And if you want to explore that adventurous side, taking the drug is going to put you there. I was experimenting. And believe it or not, I thought that I was being safe in that encounter," he said.
"It really did come out of the blue for me. At the time, my thoughts were very heavy in the 'No one is ever going to love me now. No one's ever going to want to have sex with me. I should just give up on trying to find someone,' " he remembered his first reaction after being diagnosed.
Now Pintauro is married to Wil Tabares. He told his husband about his diagnosis when they first met in 2012. "It was our first date and we hadn't even kissed and it was the first thing I told him. The first thing he said was 'I'm not scared of it at all,' " he recalled.
"There is so much negativity surrounding HIV and just the concept of it, that a lot of people just aren't comfortable with it. They might say they are, but in the back of their mind, they're terrified of it," he explained. "And that's okay. I can't force them to not be terrified of something. I was terrified of it for the longest time. I understand that terror."
"For me, HIV is the new closet in the sense that, until we all come out of the HIV closet and start talking about it � we [won't become] more accepted," he continued. By starting an open conversation about the disease, he said, "I think we'll make a big difference."
"I am speaking out because I want everyone who continues to 'tweak' and party to know that it is not worth the price," Pintauro additionally told PEOPLE. "I want my community to wake up, stop being complacent and start taking care of each other. We need to be the best we can - safe and healthy."
