PHOTOS – Charlotte Valandrey, Richard Cross… These stars who broke the taboo of HIV status
They are living with HIV and have the courage to say so. Targets of stigma, criticism, and sometimes even insults, many individuals have lifted the veil on their HIV status to raise public awareness. Charlotte Valandrey broke between them “law of silence” In the 80s, it was applied by his parents when he found out that he was contaminated by him “Gothic Princess”. “When I found out… You are given 6 months to live. You are 18 years old and you don’t understand what is happening to you. I did a 360 degree turn and was forgotten and denied. But luckily I did because I couldn’t. It was a law of silence. There was no need to talk about it then, my parents asked me to. It suffocates you. I have to be transparent and help with this trial.” he told Faustine Bollaert with emotion in the program It starts today on March 25.
In 1996, HIV woke up and Charlotte Valandrey begins triple therapy. After that, two years later, in 2005, the actress decided to speak publicly about her illness in her books. first heart transplant. “I became a bearer of hope from books. Little by little, more and more people came, because actually it gave them hope, I said to myself: ‘Well, it’s hard in the neighborhood, but you have a mission, you’re doing it’. Then there are those who come to see me in the first two books. There is one, I remember, it was below my house… He told me that I really saved his life.”, Before he died at the age of 53, he confessed to France 2 Charlotte Valandrey After receiving a second heart transplant in July 2022.
>> PHOTOS – Charlie Sheen, Charlotte Valandrey… These stars broke the taboo about their HIV status
Richard Cross on the disease: “I wanted to throw myself into the void”
Like him, Richard Cross In 2013, it was found to have been contaminated, possibly since the late 1970s. Former vocal coach Star Academy it took a long time to realize that he was sick. “My health suddenly deteriorated. I started to lose weight, coughed up blood, and had pain in my mouth“, trusts Boy magazine. Then he learns that he has Kaposi’s cancer, a cancer that particularly affects immunocompromised people such as AIDS patients. “My condition worsened within a year (…) I became discouraged, I wanted to kill myself I wanted to throw myself into the void” says the singer.
A day after his attempt, the triple therapy comes and his health improves: “It was great! Within two months my viral load was gone. I gained weight and everything slowly stopped. My health is restored”. “When faced with such a pathology, you need to ask yourself questions and update your life. You should ask yourself how we live, how we eat. This is simply what we call the hygiene of life.”, he continues. While some personalities evoke the disease to raise awareness and advance research, others are forced to revel in its proximity.
Threatened by her ex, Conchita Wurst reveals her HIV status
In 2018, Conchita Wurst, alias Thomas Neuwirth, revealed the following under a former threat: “Today has come the day that will free me from the sword of Damocles for the rest of my life: I have been infected with HIV for many years“. He is famous for winning For Eurovision 2014, the Austrian writes on his Instagram account: “It doesn’t matter to the public, but my ex-friend is threatening to release this personal information to the public, and I don’t give anyone the right to intimidate me and influence my life in this way in the future.” He follows: “I have been on treatment since my diagnosis and have been continuously below the detection limit for many years. That’s why I can’t transmit the virus“. Information that Conchita Wurst does not want to make public “for several reasons”.
“The most important thing for me was my family who knew and supported me unconditionally from the first day. I would gladly take care of the HIV status of their sons, grandsons and brothers. Likewise, my friends, I have known about this for a while and treat this information impartially. that I wish to all concerned”, he explains. Second: “This is information that I think is especially relevant for people who are meant to have sex.”.
Mano Solo: “I’m not infected with HIV anymore, but I have AIDS”
Long before them, Mano Solo had an illness that killed him in 2010. In 1995 During a concert at the Bataclan, declares: “I’m not infected with HIV anymore, but I have AIDS”. Horse New Obshe returns to his trust in his followers: “I found out at Christmas 1986. I had lymph nodes all over the place. And I knew I was taking all the risk. I hadn’t shot for a long time, but I cheated a lot and did a lot of drug addiction. I really had a profile. “At that time, it was not polite to remove the condom. It was even insulting. Nobody wanted it. And even less children.”he continues.
Illness, then there is “chop” I mean “with a girl or with a camera”. Mano Solo claimed to have AIDS, one “militant action”: “Don’t let society crush me this was already a militant act. When I found out I had AIDS, Le Pen was still talking about the sidatorium.. In his own way, he feels that there is “deghettoize” AIDS : “By showing that AIDS is a part of life. It’s no longer ‘fighting AIDS’, now you have to live with it and I can’t be a spokesperson for anything else“.
Photo credit: RACHID BELLAK / BESTIMAGE
