'Big Brother' Cast: Season 8 Winner 'Evel' Dick Donato Reveals He Is HIV Positive, 'I Just Went Numb' [VIDEO]
"Evel" Dick Donato, the winner of the eighth season of CBS' Big Brother, has publicly revealed that he is HIV positive.
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Donato has actually been living with HIV since 2011, according to a new report by People. The 51-year-old reveals the news on Wednesday night's episode of VH1's Couples Therapy, in which he is participating with girlfriend Stephanie Rogness-Fischer.
As it turns out, Donato first received the news that he was HIV positive during his return to Big Brother in Season 13. Donato had returned to the show along with his daughter Daniele Donato as part of the "Dynamic Duos" twist. He received the news from the Diary Room during the first week of the show, which ultimately led him to quit for, at the time, mysterious circumstances.
"They told me that something was wrong with my blood test," Dick tells People. "They had done two HIV tests. One had come back positive and the other had come back negative." After the show's resident doctor took more blood, he learned that he was indeed HIV positive.
"When they told me, I just went numb," he says. After leaving the show, "they had a car take me from CBS to my mother's house. She was the first person I told."
He says that he likely contracted the disease through unprotected sex with a woman. "People are afraid to come forward because they're afraid of the stigma of HIV," he continues. "I'm not gay and I've never stuck a needle in my arm, but at this point, it doesn't matter. We create a stigma around the disease that makes it hard for people to publicly say they have it."
As with all HIV patients, Dick will be continuing to take medication throughout his life. He currently takes one pill per day. He adds that he expects to die of something different as he grows older, not HIV or AIDS.
"I knew it wasn't a death sentence like it used to be," Dick notes, "But it has still changed me. I do think about others a lot more now. I'm looking forward to going public with this, because maybe, just maybe, this can be the moment where I do something that really helps other people."
Watch Dick's admission on Couples Therapy Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on VH1.
