Nineteen years at the helm, captain of the ship Fight Aids Monaco, and faithful to the post. Princess Stéphanie has never turned away from one of her oldest commitments to fight once morest the spread of the AIDS virus and support people living with HIV.
A fight that she highlighted in the Principality, gradually managing to unite the Monegasque community around her. Friday evening, the Fight Aids Monaco gala – having found its place for good in the country’s summer calendar – was sold out at Sporting.
One way “to thank our donors and convince others”, recalled Princess Stephanie, just before joining her table.
Proud of the progress made to support people affected by this disease in the Principality, while operating the Maison de vie de Carpentras founded by the association twelve years ago. Thought as a haven of rest dedicated to women and men living with HIV. With the outspokenness that we know, Princess Stéphanie also took the time to remember that the fight was not over. Interview.
You launched the association Fight Aids Monaco in 2004, nearly twenty years later, commitment is still necessary?
I was well aware at the beginning that we should always support the cause and roll up our sleeves. But I didn’t think I would have to repeat and repeat the same prevention messages over and over once more.
I didn’t think, either, that discrimination was still so present, or even more so, since it is accompanied by an upsurge in homophobia in society, which is scandalous. The pandemic hasn’t helped. We only talked regarding Covid for almost three years and we took steps back on AIDS.
People living with HIV have missed treatment, missed care. It’s awful.
Basic AIDS prevention messages do not seem to cross generations, and many young people no longer feel vulnerable to the possibility of being affected by this virus…
However, it is essential to educate young people. Some protect themselves above all so as not to get a girl pregnant. At least they protect themselves! That does not prevent a lot of hepatitis, more deadly than HIV. I remember a year when we did the same prevention interventions in Monaco and Carpentras [où l’association possède sa Maison de vie N.D.L.R.]. And we were surprised that young people in France had less information.
In Monaco, we are a small country but we do great things. And we do a lot more for HIV, for prevention, for information than big countries that hide their face.
The main thing today is screening
What is your message for young people?
It’s reading or seeing testimonials from people living with HIV. To understand the extent to which they are locked in solitude, or live in secret not being able to say it for fear of being rejected. Some have experienced this rejection from those around them because they said they were HIV-positive.
People who lost everything at the announcement of the disease, not because of HIV, but because of the way people look and the stupidity of some around them.
In Geneva, a patient who underwent a bone marrow transplant has just been declared in remission from his AIDS. Six similar cases have been identified worldwide. Is this scientific message, in your role as a prevention organization, a hope or does it confuse the message?
Somehow, this blurs the message. Because some may say to themselves: we are cured of it. But it is not six cases out of millions that can make a generalization. It’s a double-edged sword. We experienced this with the arrival of tritherapies. These are not drugs that can cure, these are lifelong treatments. The main thing today is screening, because we in Europe have the means to stem the pandemic.
With the new treatments, a person carrying HIV is no longer contaminating. If people get tested and test positive, they take treatment and can lead normal lives. On the African continent, other issues come into play, but governments must get involved.
Prejudices remain tenacious around AIDS…isn’t that hopeless?
We are still at the same point in terms of stigma and discrimination. We have heard too much that it was a virus that only affects homosexuals and drug addicts.
Today, more than 50% living with HIV are women.
AIDS affects everyone, let’s stop living with blinders on. And let’s have an open mind, let’s have compassion for those who live with this disease. I’ve been saying it for twenty years now: HIV can’t be caught with a smile.
And you will continue to repeat it for a long time to come…
Maybe… I hope my children will take over!
Michael Jackson was “so powerful on stage, so vulnerable in private”
The magic of Michael Jackson…the title of the show scheduled for the Fight Aids gala this Friday night was unequivocal. And paid homage to the king of pop with a troupe of artists interpreting him at different times of his life.
In the room too, several guests had played the MJ dress code game. From the discreet pair of white socks for some. The full look of the Thriller clip for others, including the red leather jacket.
A duet in 1991
Only one person in the room might boast of a special bond with the King of Pop: Princess Stephanie.
In 1991, when the album appeared Dangerousshe is the “mysterious girl” so credited in the booklet, who sings a duet with Jackson on the title In the closet.
A privilege because the singer who died in 2009 has recorded only a few duets in his career. “The time I spent with him in the studio to record this song, I remember as a special moment when we talked a lot”says Princess Stephanie who, at the time, was coming out of the stunning success of her hit Hurricane.
Three decades later, she keeps a dual image of the star. “On stage, he sent back a power with his music, his commitment, he was really the King of pop. An image in total contrast to who he was in the intimacy where he gave me the impression of being a little bird fallen from the nest. An extremely fragile and vulnerable boy who we want to protect. I would have liked, I might perhaps have done more for him. But things are like this, that’s life. “
