“Who’s the Boss?” star Danny Pintauro comes out as HIV-positive
Former child TV star's message to the gay community: We need to take better care of ourselves
Child television star Danny Pintauro, known for portraying Jonathan on ’80s sitcom Who’s the Boss?, told Oprah Winfrey in an interview for Oprah: Where Are They Now? that he is HIV-positive, and has been since 2003.
Pintauro was originally diagnosed when he was living in New York. He was unaware of his status when a regular checkup revealed that he had contracted the virus. Pintauro also told Winfrey that he was using crystal meth at the time and regrets not knowing the name of the man with whom he had sex while on crystal meth.
“I was doing crystal meth, which completely ruins your immune system,” Pintauro said. “I had just come out of a two-year relationship, and I discovered in that relationship that there was more I wanted to explore sexually. 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. I know exactly when it happened.”
Pintauro worried that he wouldn’t find someone who would love him in spite of his HIV status. He is now married and living in Las Vegas.
“What I want my community to realize is we need to take better care of ourselves,” he told Winfrey.
Pintauro, who was outed by the National Enquirer in 1997 — an experience he shared the details of in a 1999 interview with Metro Weekly — told People magazine in a separate interview that he looks forward to being an HIV activist, where he hopes to be a more positive influence for younger LGBT people.
“It is definitely one of my life regrets that I wasn’t able to take that [responsibility] on,” he says. “So now that all of this is happening, I feel like the fates are telling me that this is my opportunity to be that beacon of light, and I’m going to do everything and anything I can to live up to that.
“I feel like one of the ways the community is going to listen is for me to be pretty harsh,” Pintauro continued, saying he won’t mince words. “It’s not going to be, ‘Hey guys, let’s work on fixing this.’ It’s going to be, ‘Get your fucking shit together,’ pardon my language.”
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