A candid and inspiring account of life with HIV from one of its least likely targets: a straight, young woman with everything to lose— who ended up gaining more than she ever imagined.
For ten years, Regan Hofmann lived a double life. To the world, she was a woman from Princeton, who went to prep school, summered in the Hamptons, and rode Thoroughbred horses. She had her dream job, supportive family and friends, and the kind of good looks that stopped men in their tracks. From the outside, she seemed to have it all. On the inside, though, coursing through her veins and weighing heavy on her mind, was the truth. A truth considered the exclusive property of gay men, IV-drug users, and sex workers: she was HIV-positive. Diagnosed in 1996, doctors told her she had a year to live. Regan contracted the disease from her boyfriend—a handsome, successful, “guy next door” type who she’d happily seat beside her mother at the Thanksgiving table. Petrified that people would assume she was promiscuous or into drugs, she resolved to keep her status a secret. Then, in 2006, ten years after she was delivered what, at the time, was essentially a death sentence, she became the first heterosexual female editor-in-chief of POZ magazine, the leading HIV/ AIDS magazine in the U.S., and appeared on the cover, much to the shock and amazement of all who knew her, and many who did not. Since then, she has become one of the nation’s leading AIDS activist. She has spoken on numerous television talk shows, from The Oprah Winfrey Show to Good Morning America, and in many high-profile publications, including Vogue and The New York Times. Like Lance Armstrong’s It’s Not About the Bike and Michael J. Fox’s Lucky Man, this memoir of disease takes readers from a place of ignorance and fear to one of understanding and inspiration, revealing the strength and tenacity of one woman’s will to not only survive, but also flourish in the face of the unthinkable.
