Actor Breaks Silence on ‘Horrifying’ Experience With Candace Cameron Bure

Candace Cameron Bure

Getty Candace Cameron Bure at a Hallmark event in 2019

Candace Cameron Bure is at the center of another media controversy. In a new podcast interview, Danny Pintauro of “Who’s The Boss?” fame talked for the first time about his last interaction with Bure, which he called “horrifying.” Pintauro, who is gay, said the former Hallmark star turned his 2015 interview on “The View” into one of his “lowest moments” and while LGBTQ+ advocates slammed her questions at the time, Pintauro has not spoken about it until now.


Why Danny Pintauro Says Interview With Candace Cameron Bure Was One of His ‘Lowest Moments’

Candace Cameron Bure, Danny Pintauro

GettyCandace Cameron Bure, Danny Pintauro

In the 80s and early 90s, Pintauro and Bure were child actors at the same time on the same network; he played Jonathan Bower on ABC’s “Who’s The Boss?” while she played DJ Tanner on “Full House.” Both actors struggled to find meaningful work after their popular sitcoms ended. According to IMDb, Bure got small parts in a handful of movies and shows before marrying hockey player Valeri Bure at age 20. Pintauro went to Stanford but, per the TODAY Show, battled drug addiction and was traumatized by being publicly outed by a tabloid in 1997.

In 2015, Pintauro briefly returned to the spotlight for an interview with Oprah Winfrey. He used his appearance with Winfrey as an opportunity to educate, revealing that he’d been HIV-positive for 12 years and that he’d contracted the virus during a sexual encounter that happened when he was using crystal meth, a drug he used to help him feel less anxiety about further exploring his sexuality.

“On crystal meth, you have no boundaries, you feel invincible. You feel incredibly heightened when it comes to your sexuality, and everything sounds and feels exciting to you,” he told People at the time.

Hoping to shed light on the potentially dangerous consequences of crystal meth abuse during sex, a trend he’d seen growing among gay men, he agreed to additional interviews including a sit-down on “The View” with Bure and another former child actor, “Cosby Show” alum Raven-Symoné. The hosts received harsh criticism from the LGBTQ+ community over their questions, including The Advocate calling it “cringeworthy from beginning to end” in an article entitled “How Not To Interview an HIV-Positive Person.”

Pintauro opened up about the experience for the first time in a new episode of the “Behind the Velvet Rope” podcast, released on January 17, 2023. Given that they’d both been child actors, Yontef asked Pintauro for his thoughts on Bure and her recent controversy. In November 2022, Bure was widely criticized over a Wall Street Journal interview in which she said her new TV network, Great American Family, wouldn’t likely feature gay couples and would, instead, focus on “traditional marriage.” Pintauro said he was “not surprised,” given an experience he’d had with Bure several years prior.

“I was disappointed in the way she treated me when I was on ‘The View,'” Pintauro told Yontef, who said he hadn’t seen the 2015 exchange and asked for more details.

Pintauro said, “You know, she basically said ‘Do you take responsibility for getting HIV because you were living a promiscuous lifestyle?’ and turned on the spot to my husband and said, ‘Do you have unprotected sex with your husband?’ It was horrifying. It was one of the lowest moments of the journey I had after coming out to Oprah.”

During the “View” interview, Bure said to Pintauro, “I want to know…do you take responsibility for your actions, for being promiscuous, going into a lifestyle of having heightened sex because of the meth that you were using? I want to know what the message is because you are the new, you want to be the new face of HIV.”

It was actually Raven-Symoné who then questioned Pintauro’s husband, Wil Tabares, who was sitting in the audience, about unprotected sex. And though media critics and LGBTQ+ advocates were swift to condemn the interview, Pintauro told Yontef that he chose to keep quiet at the time.

“I consciously chose not to make it a thing,” he said, noting that he was trying to be a positive example of someone who was thriving after such a hard journey and diagnosis. “The last thing I wanted to do was just start talking crap about her.”


Danny Pintauro Says He Thinks Candace Cameron Bure Has Gone ‘Backwards’ in Her Beliefs

Danny Pintauro

GettyDanny Pintauro attends Family Equality’s LA Impact: A Night Of Heroes in October 2022

Discussing Bure’s controversial statement about focusing on “traditional marriage” in Great American Family’s movies, Pintauro told Yontef during the podcast interview that he’s not surprised, but is disappointed, that Bure has not been more thoughtful in her approach toward the LGBTQ+ community.

“It’s not surprising to me that she’s taking this stance with the Christmas movies she’s going to be involved in,” he said. “But it is very disappointing.”

“We’ve been in this business together,” he continued. “She must have tons of people in her life that are LGTBQ+, at least from her past, and how she got to this place is just a little concerning to me. It’s almost like she went backwards, in a way.”

Pintauro and Yontef mused about whether she’d been influenced by her brother, former actor and conservative Christian Kirk Cameron, or her upbringing.

“I don’t know where any of this stems from, but it’s definitely disappointing. You know, I think she could be an incredible ally if she would just break away from all this…well, I guess it’s religious-based…if she could open herself up again.”

The actress was also caught up in controversy when “So You Think You Can Dance” judge and LGBTQ+ activist JoJo Siwa shared on TikTok that Bure was the “rudest” celebrity she’d ever encountered, per Us Weekly. Both later shared that they had worked things out privately regarding a moment on the “Fuller House” set when Bure seemingly ignored then-11-year-old Siwa, but the dancer has since said she has no interest in speaking with Bure after her WSJ comments.

Meanwhile, Pintauro decided in 2022 to pursue acting again after years of avoiding the entertainment industry.

According to People, he quit his job as a veterinarian tech, relocated from Texas to Hollywood with his husband, reached out to his former manager, and got to audition for a Lifetime Christmas movie. He was amazed when he landed a role in “A Country Christmas Harmony” right away, playing Brooke Elliott’s best friend. The movie premiered on the network in November.

Pintauro’s excited to see what comes next, which might include appearing in the “Who’s The Boss?” reboot that’s in the works for the FreeVee network.

In November, his former co-star Alyssa Milano told People, “I’m very proud of Dan. Not only for following his lifelong dream but even more so for being a good person and staying true to who he is despite the hardships he’s faced.”