Danny Roberts, the MTV The Real World housemate who made headlines in 2000 when he was dating a male military officer on the early reality TV show during the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” era, bringing attention to that discriminatory law, has revealed he’s living with HIV.
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Said Roberts to Entertainment Weekly: “The reason I want to share this story is that I spent so long battling and beating myself up for my own misconceptions and bigotry. It is difficult to admit the negative feelings you had about a set of people and state of being based on made-up stories.”
Roberts told the publication he has known for eight years and said that while he has learned to live with the virus, he said the early years were very difficult because of stigma and isolation. He’s now 41 with a young adopted daughter and said he’s been “undetectable” since his diagnosis. He described living with HIV as “having a crappy old cell phone with a huge app eating your energy.”
Roberts said he wanted to bring attention to HIV/AIDS ahead of World AIDS Day on December 1.
