Jonathan Van Ness reveals HIV diagnosis, former drug addiction

“Queer Eye’s” Jonathan Van Ness is getting vulnerable in his new memoir “Over the Top.”

In a preview of his book with the New York Times, Van Ness opened up about his early struggles with sex and drug addiction as well as his experience with sexual assault, revealing that he was abused by an older boy from his childhood church.

“For a lot of people who are survivors of sexual assault at a young age, we have a lot of compounded trauma,” he said.

That trauma, Van Ness revealed, led to a series of other “self-destructive” behaviors, including spending hours in AOL chat rooms, which he used to meet up with older men for sex in his teens. Later on, Van Ness started college at the University of Arizona in Tucson where he began doing cocaine. And after spending his monthly allowance on the drug, he began advertising sex for more money. Soon after, he flunked out of college.

Van Ness then moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a hairstylist, where he was introduced to methamphetamine, resulting in two rehab trips and two relapses. It wasn’t until he fainted while working in a salon that he began “cleaning up” his act. The day after he fainted, Van Ness revealed, he went to Planned Parenthood where he tested positive for H.I.V.

“That day was just as devastating as you would think it would be,” he writes.

Since “cleaning up” his act, Van Ness said he still drinks and smokes marijuana, but stays away from hard drugs, which he hasn’t done in years. “Over the Top” is set to be released on Sept. 24.

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