"Arthur Ashe's Secret"

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1992. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

"Arthur Ashe's Secret"

Newsweek (04/20/92) Vol. 119, No. 16, P. 62
Deford, Frank

Abstract: Arthur Ashe's wish to keep his condition a secret should have been honored, writes Frank Deford of Newsweek. It was mostly for his five-year-old daughter, Camera, that Ashe did not want to disclose that he contracted HIV from a tainted blood transfusion, possibly after his second heart operation in 1983. Ashe learned that he had developed AIDS when he had brain surgery in 1988. He understood and accepted the fact. What angered Ashe was that he wished for it to be kept a secret. On April 7 USA Today told Ashe that the paper had been told of his condition. He said that the injustice was that someone had to "rat on me" and therefore change the rest of his life. However, Ashe knew that being a public figure would make it difficult to keep his condition secret. Ashe made it a point not to blame USA Today specifically, it just happened to be the publication that was identified first. Traditionally a serene man, this is one blow that Arthur Ashe could not overlook and shouldn't have, Deford concludes.

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