Famous People Who Had AIDS and Tested HIV Positive

People have had to deal with the realities of living with HIV for as long as we have known about it. Disclosing your HIV status to family and friends can be challenging, and when you’re in the public eye, coming out as HIV positive adds a huge decision about whether you want the entire world to know.

Many celebrities have opted to share that aspect of their lives with the world. That decision often benefits the rest of us: by coming out, they may humanize the illness for many people who would not otherwise know anyone who is publicly living with HIV. They can aid in raising awareness and combating stigma. Let’s dive into the life of the celebrities who are claiming to have HIV.

Netflix’s Queer Eye Reboot is a break-out star, Jonathan Van Ness. With the new Fab Five gaining fame and a position in pop-based culture, Van Ness came to the New York Times for living with HIV before his biography “Over the Top” was published in September 2019. Van Ness also talked about his prior experience and compounded pain of sexual assault, drug dependence.

It truly was challenging when Queer Eye came out, as it was, ‘I want to talk about my status?’ he shared with the Times. And then he was like, ‘The government of Trump did all it can to make the stigma of the LGBT community prosper around him.’ He went on to say that he felt the urge to talk about it.

Charlie Sheen is famous for his off-screen comedic talents as much as he’s for on-screen. As he left CBS’s most successful site in November 2015, two and a half men, where he was replaced by Ashton Kutcher, was about four years after departing one. The youngest of the Sheen acting family, Martin Sheen, and Emilio Estevez are also known as Sheen. He was regarded as a “bad guy” in Hollywood and spoke openly about sex workers, drug usage, plenty of sex. Sheen was driven out as the National Investigator prepared a story that showed that HIV stigma still has a detrimental impact on individuals living with HIV today.  Sheen said he’s on antiretroviral medicine and that he is undetectable when he came out.

One study found that Charlie Sheen’s revelation is more successful than any in the urban health department’s awareness program. After 24 hours of Sheen’s declaration, these were the states: Prompted Google’s greatest number of searches for HIV ever: 2.75 million over any previous day. That day, 471 percent increased in HIV searches. 1,25 million searches contained terms such as ‘condoms,’ ‘HIV testing’ and ‘HIV symptoms.’ For around 72 hours following the announcement, the searches also maintained relatively high.

Billy Porter’s Emmy award-winning performance in the breakthrough TV series Pose might have made him a household name, but Porter was a star throughout his career. It is this that makes it impressive that he has lived with HIV since 2007, according to his May 2021 release in the Hollywood Reporter. Porter utilized his interview to tell the public, instead of resting on his laurels, that he was more than diagnosed. And you’re not worthy of him if you don’t want to work with him because of his rank.

Confronted with this, Porter addressed his trauma that Broadway and the music business had previously rejected him – asking that he be celebrated as a Black Queer man – and stood for the whole community of individuals living with HIV, and not only himself. Similarly, he has taught readers everywhere that confronting trauma is the way to personal release in recognizing that his decision of revealing did not take place overnight. There can still be stigma and homophobia, but with Billy Porter becoming the newest guiding light of culture, it is apparent that nothing can prevent us.

It’d be difficult to talk about HIV popularity and not to enlighten Magic Johnson. It was the turn of the day when Johnson, one of the leading players in basketball, came out in 1991 as living with HIV. He was a powerful, physically able athlete who came out before we had good HIV medicines when someone with HIV died most frequently.

He has been flourishing since his diagnosis, leading some to assume he is healed. But he continues to teach people in his appearances and remind them that he’s not healed, he’s just on medication that’s effective. Johnson said he had HIV and had HIV for 22 years when he appeared on SiriusXM Hip-Hop Nation in 2014. In his body, it’s merely sleepy. The medicines did their part and he played his part with the practice and the positive approach to HIV.

Rock Hudson was one of the straight, masculine, macho film stars of the 1950s. Many were shocked when he was diagnosed with AIDS and died from AIDS in 1985. His advertising team had stated he had liver cancer before he came out. Hudson was the first prominent person to announce that he lived with AIDS in July 1985 and at the time was.

Hudson died in October 1985 at the age of 59 a few months later. For many, Hudson’s gaunt was far from the matinee buff star he was only a decade before. Following his death, Elizabeth Taylor, its Giant co-star, became a well-known AIDS militant and led a battle in Hollywood for research funding.

Danny Pintauro, 39, publicly revealed that he has been living with HIV for twelve years in September 2015. Pintauro, who was known to portray Jonathan Bower at Who is the Boss, was a child celebrity in the 1980s and 1990s? In The View, Pintauro freely talked about his HIV diagnosis. He had a really awkward appearance—not because he said or did anything wrong, but because of the stigmatic and uncomfortable questions that his presenters asked him and his partner if he or she used condoms while they were doing sex.

In the interview, former child actress, Candace Cameron Bure, questioned Pintauro whether he “went into the lifestyle of having enhanced sex because of the meth you used?”? During the conversation, Pintauro was open to HIV throughout his 20s with a methodic addiction. Pintauro has participated in HIV awareness efforts since its public revelation. In 2016, he also wrote briefly for TheBody.

De Shields is nothing short of a Broadway icon, with 14 Broadway credits and a Tony honor to his name. He is a successful choreographer and director as well as performing and singing. After three decades of keeping his condition hidden, De Shields became HIV positive in an interview in 2020 with TheBody.

De Shields stated he loves himself first of all. He said that he was not in love with himself, but he loved himself since he learned how to love another person if he can’t love himself. And thus his soul is not prepared to depart, he trusts himself. Because here we have a nice time. We have stuff to do, places to go, people to see, activities to do. A highly renowned actor, De Shields has won the Outer Critics Circle Award, the Emmy Award, and the Obie Award, as well as Tonys.

For Queen, one of the best-selling Rock bands of all time and the maestro behind famous rock music from stadiums such as “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and “We Will Rock You,” Freddie was the bisexual sex symbol. Four years later, just one day after Mercury revealed its HIV-positive status with the world, Mercury tested positively and died of AIDS-related pneumonia. If you saw the film Bohemian Rhapsody, you know that the film played a bit quickly and loosely with his facts. It fused the timing to get Freddie Mercury to apologize for HIV and be ruthless.

This was one of the several issues surrounding the film. This isn’t what happened, in actuality. The film sparked several ethical questions regarding how persons who have HIV after their death may be portrayed. The second picture made in recent years by Bohemian Rhapsody was an HIV-negative player who was awarded an Academy prize for playing someone who lives with the disease. In 2014, both Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto won Oscars for their Dallas Buyers Club performances, the latter for a transgender woman living with HIV. This was twice a year ago.

One of the earliest internationally renowned supermodels was Gia Carangi. She was one of the most sought-after fashion artists in the world and she appeared on Vogue and Cosmopolitan covers. However, after her heroin addiction, her career was cut short when she died in 1986.

Carangi is renowned to pave the way for some of the most important names in mode modeling, like Naomi Campbell and Cindy Crawford, which emerged in the early 1990s. [Her death remained mainly silent]. Her funeral service was conducted in a private, humble place and was not extensively published, despite her tremendous popularity. In the HBO movie, finally, Angelina Jolie depicted Carangi.

In 1995, Eazy-E, the musical legend and co-founder of the N.W.A. The group, together with Dr. Dre and Ice Cube, emerged as diagnosed with AIDS. The N.W.A. The Straight Outta Compton album was recorded in 1988 and is one of the most powerful records in rap history. After his diagnosis, Eazy-E died at the age of 31 barely 1 month. He was diagnosed and died in the 2015 film Straight Outta Compton, which was nominated for the Academy Award.

In the movie, Jason Mitchell plays Eazy-E. The film shows the three N.W.A. members that will be reunited when he dies. There have been reports about Eazy-purposeful E’s infection with HIV via an acupuncture needle—which is part of a long-standing, dangerous legend that HIV is often armed. However, these rumors are false. As one of the legends of rap, Eazy-E is usually mentioned. His death was widely covered in media outlets such as Newsweek, Jet, and Vibe.

While you may not be aware of the look of Keith Haring — or even of who he was — you may have encountered his art. After being diagnosed with AIDS in 1988, the HIV-positive artist who died in 1990 has become among the most noticeable icons in industrial art. His dancing graffiti characters were on display at Uniqlo on all things from Adidas clothing.

In his later years of life, Haring was always extremely open about HIV diagnostics and has devoted awareness-raising and founding the Keith Haring Foundation, which is still supporting HIV/AIDS prevention and education organizations.

Disk superstar Sylvester James, simply known as Sylvester, was a renowned San Francisco singer and composer who was recognized for his “Mighty Real,” his song “You Make Me Feel.” Sylvester died of symptoms associated with AIDS in 1988. In San Francisco General Hospital Ward 86 Sylvester left profits from his songs for persons diagnosed with AIDS to the AIDS Emergency Fund and Rita Racketts feeding program. On his 3rd studio album in the year of his death, Sylvester knew he might never be in a position to release it.

Sylvester struggled at his death to make people know that AIDS is of great urgency to the Black people in the United States. To The Los Angeles Times, Sylvester informed that AIDS is still considered a homosexual white male sickness.  And, even if we were so badly impacted by this sickness, the Black community was at the bottom of the queue in obtaining information. He would like to think he can give other people the confidence to face it by being public with it himself.

On the sixth season of the RuPaul Drag Race, Trinity K. Bonet was a participant. During the show, a competitor was notably concerned with herself, and eventually, her other competitors were living with HIV. In 2012, two years before the sixth season of the Drag Race, Trinity was diagnosed with HIV. Bonet was recognized during the concert for her strong lip-sync, legendary performances for “I’m Every Woman” and “Vibeology” by Chaka Khan and Paula Abdul.

Bonet talked about her illness publicly during an interview with NewNowNext, so that she can assist someone else to go through the same thing. And she wanted her followers to understand that their idols are not superheroes. You can pass by her experience and don’t be frightened.

In his life, Isaac Asimov’s prolific author has authored 477 books. At the age of 72, he died in 1992. When he died, a New York Times article was issued which omitted one word: AIDS. However, that’s not quite the fault of the Times. In 1983 Isaac was diagnosed with AIDS through blood transfusion, according to a letter sent ten years after his wife Janet Asimov’s death. Doctors encouraged him and his family to keep his illness hidden, demonstrating how severe stigma existed at that time.

Born in the Soviet Union, Isaac immigrated to the United States where he became renowned as one of the most important writers of science fiction ever. He even created his own science fiction journal to allow new authors to submit their work.

Similar to Asimov, tennis star Arthur Ashe was given HIV via transfusion of blood. Ashe, a heterosexual Black guy, was given his diagnosis in April 1992, just a few months after a Black athlete Magic Johnson came up. During Ashe’s press appearance, his wife Jeanne described how they shared his illness with their then-5-year-old daughter, Camera. She stated that Arthur and she needed to educate her on how to respond to new, unusual, and occasionally harsh statements that had little to do with her world.

Ashe was obliged to reveal his HIV status when a USA Today reporter phoned him and informed him that he had been tipped off about Ashe’s HIV status. He expressed his dissatisfaction with being forced to lie in order to preserve his privacy. Ashe was the first black man to win the championships of the American Open and Wimbledon. He established the Arthur Ashe AIDS Defeat Endowment after his diagnosis.

Liberace chose to keep his AIDS diagnosis and ensuing disease hidden until his death in 1987, albeit living loudly as an icon, flamboyant pianist. Before his death, personnel stated that he had “the consequences of the watermelon diet” in the Eisenhower Medical Centre. In Palm Springs, Liberace died in his home. He decided to die there because “he wanted to rest in the place he loves.” according to his prosecutor, Joel Strote. Before his death, fans met outside his home to watch. During his story, Liberace appeared and published various records in several films and TV series. For almost a decade, he has been the world’s highest-paid performer and his luxury has become recognized.

Liberace has not been public on his sexuality, despite his flamboyance. He actually swore on oath during two libel claims against the media in the 1950s that he was not a homosexual. Palm Springs provided him with a lying replacement. No one commented on the Liberace house’s comings and goings, nor on his appearances at restaurants with blond young guys, according to his biographer in 1988.

Fela Kuti, commonly known just as Fela, was an icon of music that has been attributed with Afrobeat, a foundation that blends Nigerian, Ghanaian, jazz, funk, and other elements. But from being a powerful, skilled musician, Fela was also a political activist who used his music to criticize the government of Nigeria and its lack of investment in Nigerians’ health and education. In the documentary Finding Fela, his son Femi Kuti stated that the political aspect of his father’s music was always important, and he couldn’t comprehend love songs in Africa, where there was so much poverty and suffering.

Kuti died of a disease associated with AIDS, although while he was living he did not speak about his condition as he and his wife were AIDS Denialists. The consequences of colonialism on individuals like her dad stated Femi Kuti must be understood. She also added that people like him had to fight back if Europe talks about AIDS or if AIDS kills Africa. During her father’s time, there was not enough evidence that sex had caused AIDS. It feels that the manner that AIDS has been marketed—the UN has not put up propaganda against AIDS.

The Arquette siblings were all active in Hollywood, like their father and grandparents. Rosanna, Richmond, and Patricia are older, but only one, David, is younger. Alexis is the second youngest. Although David Arquette is famous as an Oscar and an Emmy winner for his part in the Scream series and Patricio Arquette, Alexis first established a reputation in lesser, independent films and B-movies. Among her most famous performances were Last Exit to Brooklyn, Chucky’s Bride, The Wedding Singer, and Pulp Fiction as a camera.

Arquette had several parts on the big screen, but became a TV celebrity in reality when she was featured on CC Deville, actor Tawny Kitaen and The Jeffersons, Sherman Helsley, in the sixth and final season of The Surreal Life. During her performance in the play, Arquette made the trans community aware and was a pioneer for trans. At 47 years of age, Arquette died in 2016. In 1987, although she died of a liver illness she was diagnosed with HIV.

Anthony Perkins is recognized for playing Psycho’s Norman Bates, one of the most important horror villains in the film. But his career spanning four decades was extensive and productive. Oddly enough, after reading a story from the National Enquirer, Perkins only tested HIV positive. His wife, Berry Berenson, feared that someone involved with blood testing for another disease was leaking to the press.

From his diagnosis until he died in 1992, Perkins and his wife remained silent on his HIV status. He was frightened that if he went public, he would be given no more parts. Perkins said he learned more about love, selflessness, and human understanding from the people he had met in this great adventure in the world of AIDS than he ever did in the cutthroat, competitive world in which he spent his life.

As Mike Bradiy in The Brady Bunch, Robert Reed was America’s father. It was startling for many when the actor, who was homosexual, was killed in 1992 from an AIDS disease. His diagnosis had kept Reed silent. The National Investigator has published the status of Reed.

Christopher Knight praised Reed saying that he was as good or better a father figure than his own dad. He said that he has learned very early that if that was what gay was, it has no measure in the ability of somebody to be a fine representation of a good human being.

In the 1980s Greg Louganis won 5 Olympic medals as a diver, including four gold medals: two at the Summer Olympics of 1984 and two at Games of 1988, among other things. Greg is the best-known athlete in the United States. After the Olympic Summer 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul Louganis ended suddenly with a mistake when he walked into the Olympics with a cut of his head and his blood. However, it wasn’t this wound itself, which concluded his career—it was the unjustified dread that he had developed since it was only six months earlier that he was diagnosed with HIV.

In a documentary on his life, Louganis claimed that he “never had a Wheaties Box,” since he was a gay “not fit their wholesome demographics,” unlike other celebrated athletes. In 1988, a buddy of Louganis’s, who was diagnosed shortly after he had tested positive for HIV. In the 1988 games, his coach sneaked HIV medicinal products to the Olympic Village because his condition was public knowledge and he would not have been permitted to compete. In 2012, Ji Wallace, an Australian homosexual gymnast, appeared HIV-positive and inspired him. Louganis is still involved in the promotion of HIV and LGBTQ activism.

The HIV epidemic is hard to discuss and Pedro Zamora does not address it. Zamora introduced HIV to many people’s homes through its TV sets when he appeared on MTV’s The Real World in 1994. After his 1989 diagnosis, Zamora worked as an AIDS instructor, viewing the Real World as a means to educate Americans, as no one had done. He has taken part in the exhibit, especially among young people, and has raised awareness of AIDS.

In 1994, Zamora said one of the issues he faces as an educator is that he can get up to tell his stories that he doesn’t feel good, that he does not have fun, that he becomes sick, or that he does dances, but people cannot really see him. And he thought that it was a great way of showing how a young person actually handles HIV and AIDS. He died in November 1994 at the age of 22, only one day after the final episode of the season was broadcastable. Zamora became progressively sick.

Tommy Morrison was diagnosed with HIV in 1996, a heavy-weight fighter and Rocky V star. But while he started with medicine and was seeking advice from others living with HIV, Morrison eventually became a victim of AIDS denial and started questioning his status. Before he’s going to trust a doctor, he stated that he’ll trust an attorney. He once stated he dumped the remainder into the garbage after one month of taking medicines. And before taking any medicines, he’s going to lie down and die.

Morrison informed ESPN reporter Tom Friend in 1998 that he remembered talking to Magic on the day he revealed he had HIV. ‘Do what your doctor tells you,’ he was preaching. He didn’t have a doctor at the time, so he knelt and prayed. Every day, he thought to himself, ‘God, what does he do?’ He imagined himself dying. Then he started getting all these books in the mail, and they all told him, ‘Don’t worry about it. Simply live your life.’ That’s exactly what he did. In September 2013, Morrison died.

Alvin Ailey was born in 1931 in Texas. He was a great choreographer who in 1958 created the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater as a tribute to the cultural experience of Black America. Ailey has been recognized for his contribution to the arts by the Kennedy Center in 1988; a year later, he died of problems connected to AIDS. He was fifty-eight.

In 2019, Troy Powell, creative director of Ailey II, stated that his tale offers people hope. It offers people perspective, not just on dancing, but also on their own lives, where they look at themselves [and] who they are as human beings. His legacy is enormous. Barry Jenkins, director, and writer of If Beale Street Could Talk (based on the novel by James Baldwin) and Moonlight, has been recently confirmed to lead an Ailey biopic.