sat down for an interview in which he discussed childhood sexual trauma, his history of drug use, and being diagnosed with HIV at 25.
, Van Ness revealed that he was sexually abused by an older boy from his church as a child. In the years that followed, Van Ness battled addictions to binge eating, cocaine, and methamphetamine, spending stints in rehab twice in his early twenties. Too afraid to ask his family for more money or help, Van Ness says he supplemented his income as a hairstylist by offering sex for money on Gay.com.When he was 25, he discovered that his flu-like symptoms were actually HIV.
Using money from a family trust, Van Ness quit hard drugs following his diagnosis and rebuilt his life, becoming an online hit with hisand his subsequent rise to stardom as what he calls the show’s “effervescent, gregarious majestic center-part-blow-dry cotton-candy figure-skating queen,” Van Ness was originally reluctant to share his HIV status.
“Mr. Van Ness exhaled and gently took a sip of coffee. ‘If you’re having a terrible moment or in the middle of a conversation about something serious, people don’t care,’ he said. ‘They want their bubbly J.V.N. and to get that major selfie.’”
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