Personal Life
He is openly gay and was a longtime partner of Paul J. Hickey. On 17 December 2004, he publicly announced that he is HIV-positive and has been aware of this since 1998. Bell told Melody Maker in 1986, "I don't want to go out of my way to talk about it but I'm not going to pretend I'm not . I won't portray a heterosexual in videos and we're consciously doing lyrics that could apply to either sex". He told Barry Walters of Seventeen, "I want to be known as a good performer but it's important for me to take a stance. If you're doing music you use it for something and have substance being gay and open about it."
In a 2007 interview, Bell remarked that a complacency exists among gay men about HIV, specifying that:
There are definitely HIV-positive people who meet other HIV-positive men, and like still having unprotected sex. I think it must be quite hard for young gay men because there is so much for them now to do – there are so many saunas and stuff like that for them to go to, and it's so easy to get it."He has also practised reiki since the early 2000s. He has suffered from avascular necrosis (which has no relationship to his HIV diagnosis) and has had both hips replaced. Bell has stated that this keeps him from "pogoing around" compared to previous performances.
Paul Hickey died on 11 April 2012.
Read more about this topic: Andy Bell (singer)
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