A week after he made his HIV prognosis public, former “Who’s the Boss?” child star Danny Pintauro is ready to take the next step in his advocacy to spread awareness of the disease.
During an interview on ABC talk show “The View” on Friday, Pintauro said he recently quit his day job as a manager at a PF Chang’s restaurant and plans to spend the next year traveling around the country on what he will call the Beacon of Light Tour.
“If I have to, I’ll go from Pride to Pride around the country to get my community to say, ‘Let’s get our crap together,’” he told Candance Cameron Bure and Raven-Symone. “This is not okay with me.”
Pintauro, known to scores of fans as the lovable Jonathan Bower on the popular ’80s sitcom “Who’s the Boss?,” starring Tony Danza and Judith Light, told Oprah Winfrey‘s “Where Are They Now?” last Saturday that he was diagnosed with HIV in 2003 after experimenting with crystal meth.
The Beacon of Light tour is inspired by the comments of “Who’s the Boss?” co-star Alyssa Milano, who described Pintauro with those words during an emotional moment on CBS’ “The Talk” Tuesday.
During his interview on “The View” Friday, Cameron Bure asked if Pintauro took full responsibility for his own actions that led to his diagnosis and what his message is.
“I don’t want to be a hero, I don’t want to be the role model,” Pintauro said. “I want to be the example. I want to be the example of what can happen if you get into drugs, if you’re being promiscuous, if you’re not taking care of yourself, if you’re not being checked, if you’re not living a healthy, responsible lifestyle.”
Later in the segment, the interview got even more personal as Pintauro was asked if he and his husband practice safe sex.
“The question is, we’re married, and you try not to have limits in your marriage,” said Pintauro. “But there have to be limits in ours. Have we always been 100 percent safe? No. But I’m undetectable. And that means it’s really hard for me to give it to him. So we’re okay with that. We have that understanding that I’m taking care of myself, he’s taking care of himself.”