Actor Danny Pintauro, in the wake of the startling admission that he is HIV positive, is speaking out at length about how he contracted the disease.
In a headline-making appearance on Oprah: Where Are They Now, we learned that Danny Pintauro is HIV positive and has been for 12 years.
Now, in his first exclusive sit-down interview with his husband of one year, Wil Tabares, Pintauro, opened up about how he contracted the virus.
“Believe it or not, with this guy I was actually safe. We did use condoms,” said Pintauro, who played Jonathan on Who’s the Boss? from 1984-92.
“I got it another way, which was through oral sex.”
“When you put all of these nasty things together, like a compromised immune system, having been up for a long time, drugs, rough sex.”
“All of that combined with lesions in your mouth, bodily fluids, it’s that easy,” Danny says, and if he makes you uncomfortable, good.
Real talk is the only way to make a point, he believes, and he did not stop there; Pintauro also says he was addicted to crystal meth.
He contracted HIV around the same time he was struggling with substance abuse, though Danny did not name his sexual partner.
Pintauro says he had forgotten the man’s name until one day he happened upon it in an email. Since then he’s been trying to find him.
“I have searched. I searched the obituaries because I had a fear that I’d find him there, and I can’t find him,” Pintauro told Us Weekly.
“Mostly I just want to find out if he’s okay. The lifestyle he was leading was really irresponsible and I just want to see if he survived.”
Pintauro kicked off his Beacon of Light Tour to spread awareness about the dangers of crystal meth use and participating in HIV Equal Campaign.