"Who's the Boss?" star Danny Pintauro: I'm HIV-positive
Danny Pintauro had a lot to talk about during an interview with Oprah Winfrey that aired over the weekend.
The former "Who's the Boss?" star -- who appeared on Saturday's episode of "Oprah: Where Are They Now?" -- revealed that he is HIV-positive.
"I wanted to tell you this a long time ago, but I wasn't ready. I'm ready now," Pintauro told Winfrey. "I'm HIV-positive, and I have been for 12 years."
About why he has kept the secret for so many years Pintauro said, "It's just a big deal, you know? It's not something that people are really talking about right now."
He also opened up about how he learned about the diagnosis in 2003: "I was living in New York at the time and completely clueless to the idea that I was positive. I went in for a regular checkup. It was just regular blood work. You go in, and you sort of waited two weeks on pins and needles -- or at least I did, because I was just terrified of the idea of getting HIV."
Pintauro, 39, said he was using crystal meth at the time of the diagnosis, noting how it "completely ruins your immune system."
He added, "I'd been doing it at that point very briefly, but it was three weeks or so, off and on. 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 now lives in Las Vegas with his husband, Wil Tabares, and works as a restaurant manager. He's also dedicated to becoming an HIV activist.
"I missed the opportunity to be a beacon of light for gay kids who were going through what I was going through," he said.
Pintauro rose to fame as a child star on ABC's "Who's the Boss?" which aired from 1984-1992. There's been some buzz around the show lately as Alyssa Milano (who played Samantha Micelli) recently said she'd be open to a reboot.
Earlier this month, Judith Light (Angela Bower on the sitcom) also shared her thoughts on a reboot, telling CBS News, "You know what, I never say no to anything. Life is long and life is short and you never have any idea what's going to happen. I swore that I would never do a sitcom. I swore that I would never do a soap opera and now I have stopped doing that. I have no idea. The possibilities are always open and always there."
