Lee Thompson, Honey Boo Boo's 'Uncle Poodle,' Reveals He's HIV Positive

Honey Boo Boo's beloved "Uncle Poodle" has revealed he's HIV positive.

Uncle Poodle -- whose real name is Lee Thompson -- tells Atlanta's Fenuxe magazine he was diagnosed with HIV last year, and now hopes to lend his newfound star power to promoting safe sex in schools.

"I was adamant about getting my HIV status checked on a regular basis," Thompson told Fenuxe writer Dino Thompson-Sarmiento. After learning he'd tested positive in May 2012, he said, "I knew it had been my boyfriend who infected me. I later learned he had been HIV positive and was not taking medication and had not bothered to tell me about it. I was advised that I should press charges and, hesitantly, I did. It was the right thing to do."

Thompson, who reportedly tied the knot with his husband Josh last August, calls people who are having unsafe sex "damn fools," and noted, "They are playing Russian roulette; they are playing with their lives and that of their sexual partners."

He added, "I know what it is like to be bullied. I know what it is like to live with HIV. I can help and I want to."

Read the full interview with Uncle Poodle here.