12 stars who have publicly admitted that they live with HIV

On November 23, rock music legend, the greatest innovator of his time and an amazingly talented musician Freddie Mercury admitted that he has HIV. The next day, the lead singer of the band Queen died.

From this material you will learn about celebrities who also confessed to this disease, but managed to survive with it.

Source: Day Online

Thomas Neuwirth, 30, singer

Known as Conchita Wurst, the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 from Austria publicly confessed his HIV-positive status via Instagram in May 2018.

Thomas said that this diagnosis was made to him many years ago, but all this time the artist did not want to talk about him to the general public. The situation escalated when one of Neuwirth's close people began threatening him with the dissemination of this information.

"I will not allow anyone to frighten me and influence my life," Thomas stressed. Neuwirth underwent a course of treatment after the diagnosis was discovered, and thanks to this, he is now healthy and full of energy.

Irwin "Magic" Johnson, 59, athlete

An American professional NBA basketball player who played for the Los Angeles Lakers club, in 1996 Johnson was included in the list of the 50 greatest players in the history of the NBA.

When passing a medical examination in the 1991/92 season, it turned out that Johnson had AIDS. On November 7, 1991, he announced that he was retiring from professional sports. When asked how he got infected, he kept silent at first, then said that he had had many sexual contacts with different partners throughout his career.

He also stated that his wife Cookie and their unborn child at that time were not infected with the virus, and that he would devote his future life to fighting this deadly disease. In the photo: the grown-up son of basketball star AJ.

Johnson then began taking special anti—AIDS cocktails - combinations of medications that prevent the progression of HIV infection to the terminal stage. In September 2002, doctors stated that Johnson had no symptoms of AIDS.

Magic said about this: "Medicine has done its job. I think I did what I could, too. And the Lord did the rest."

Nadia Benissa, 36, singer

The German singer, known as a member of the pop group No Angels and the local "Factory of Stars", left the group in 2010 after she received two years of probation for infecting a sexual partner with HIV.

In 1999, Benissa gave birth to a daughter. During pregnancy, she was diagnosed with HIV. On April 11, 2009, Benissa was arrested for having several unprotected sexual contacts between 2004 and 2006 and at the same time not informing her partners that she had an infection.

The press writes about the infection of the star as follows: a girl who grew up in a Muslim family, in spite of her strict father, got into bad company: she started smoking, drinking and had sex for the first time at the age of 14. She used marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine and crack (a mixture of cocaine and heroin), without even realizing that it was a heavy drug. At 16, she became pregnant, and then the truth about HIV was revealed.

Anton Krasovsky, 43, journalist

The TV presenter admitted in 2017 that he has a positive HIV status. He told about this in an interview with Zag.

A political strategist, a former activist of the presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak's headquarters and an openly gay man now heads the AIDS Center, which distributes information about the disease, fights prejudice and helps those affected by the Russian HIV epidemic to get medicines.

Jerry Herman, 87, composer

The poet, the author of the world-famous Broadway musicals "Hello, Dolly!" and "Milk and Honey", learned that he had HIV in 1985. But I was able to openly tell about it only after a couple of years.

Herman is an example of how experimental drugs and new HIV treatments actually work. The composer takes medications, with the help of which he manages to enjoy life to this day.

Andy Bell, 54, musician

The vocalist of the synthpop duo Erasure and openly gay found out about his illness in 1990. Then the doctors prescribed the star treatment for pneumonia.

Now Bell regularly undergoes a course of combinatorial therapy, allowing him to lead the life of an ordinary person.

Pavel Lobkov, 51, journalist

The former TV presenter of NTV and the author of a number of TV shows is one of the rarest daredevils among Russians who confessed to a terrible disease.

He told about his HIV status in December 2015, on the day of the World Fight against AIDS, on the Dozhd TV channel. In an interview with colleagues, Lobkov clarified that doctors diagnosed him with an infection in 2003. It is not specified how the infection occurred, but there are rumors that Lobkov is still a ladies' man.

Larry Kramer, 83, playwright

A Pulitzer Prize winner, a fighter for the rights of LGBT and HIV-infected people, one of the most shocking writers in the United States has been active since 1991.

It was Kramer who wrote the autobiographical play "The Ordinary Heart" in 1986 about the early years of the spread of HIV, when a new disease was called "cancer of homosexuals." The main role in the film adaptation was played by a real gay Matt Bomer and received a Golden Globe for it.

Greg Louganis, 58, athlete

The famous American diver learned about his illness in 1988. And even after that, he was able to win two more gold medals at the "Olympic Games". But he admitted this only in 1995, when he released his autobiography "Breaking the Surface".

After this confession, a serious scandal occurred in the States: at one of the "OI", the athlete unsuccessfully jumped into the pool and broke his head. At that time, he was still hiding his HIV status, which means that other Olympians were in danger. Although doctors assured that infection in such a situation is impossible, Luganis apologized several times for what happened on TV.

Now Louganis teaches at the acting school, appears in films, plays in the theater. The virus in his blood has dropped to undetectable. A few years later, Louganis married her husband Johnny Chaillot.

Charlie Sheen, 53, actor

The Hollywood star in 2015 alarmed the whole world with his admission that he had the human immunodeficiency virus. According to him, he was diagnosed four years earlier.

According to Shin, who had, as he boasted, about 5,000 sexual partners, he always advocated the use of condoms. But once he neglected this measure of protection when "he was too drunk or just too lazy."

The actor promised fans that, against the background of illness, he would, of course, begin to adhere to a healthy lifestyle, quit smoking and almost go to a monastery. However, the paparazzi recently caught him leaving the airport with a cigarette in his mouth.

Chris Smith, 67, politician

Former British Culture Minister Chris Smith is the first politician who was not afraid to talk about his homosexual orientation. And in early 2005, Smith shocked the public by saying that he had been living with HIV since 1987.

Chris visited the Russian Federation as part of an international AIDS project. At the seminars, he talked about the lives of people with HIV-positive status and their problems.

Andreas Lundstedt, 46, musician

The founder of the Swedish group Alcazar in December 2007 admitted that the rumors about his HIV-positive status are true. Almost immediately, the singer began undergoing maintenance therapy.

Now Andreas says that his life has improved: he feels great, but the virus does not affect his work in any way.

However, despite this, information appeared last week that Alcazar ceases to exist after 20 years of activity. Their farewell concert took place on November 16. Whether this is due to the health of the frontman is unknown.