Former Eggheads star CJ de Mooi has said he is dying from AIDS and facing being made homeless.
The ex-quizzer, 49, used to be a regular on the BBC One show, until he was given the boot in 2016, when he was wrongly accused of sexual assault.
He also faced being extradited to the Netherlands after being detained under a European arrest warrant at Heathrow Airport accused of manslaughter, murder, assault and battery in Amsterdam in 1988.
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Although all the charges were dropped, CJ has used up all his money on legal bills and was made bankrupt in September last year.
The former model – who has found solace in running – took to his Twitter account on Sunday (21.04.19) to reveal he has spent the past three decades fighting the life-threatening infection and that he may not have long “left”.
He wrote: “I’ve been living with AIDS for 30 years but the agony of the last 3 years means I may not have many left.
“I’m outwardly healthy, still running and am staying positive I can get better.
I’ve been living with AIDS for 30 years but the agony of the last 3 years means I may not have many left. I’m outwardly healthy, still running and am staying positive I can get better.
Thank you all for your love and if I can do anything to help any of you, please just ask. CJ 💚— CJ de Mooi (@cjdemooi) 21 April 2019
“Thank you all for your love and if I can do anything to help any of you, please just ask. CJ (sic)”
CJ – who lives in Caldicot, Monmouthshire, with his husband Andrew Doran – has help running his profile on the micro-blogging app by his friend Joe, who has asked for donations via a crowdfunding campaign to help his friend who is “about to lose his home”.
He said: “Thank you so much to everyone who donated, commented, retweeted or sent support.
“You are amazing as is the £3348.72 raised for CJ so far. If he somehow manages to save his house, it will all be repaid or go to charity. Joe.”
Thank you so much to everyone who donated, commented, retweeted or sent support. You are amazing as is the £3348.72 raised for CJ so far. If he somehow manages to save his house, it will all be repaid or go to charity. Joe ❤️
— CJ de Mooi (@cjdemooi) 21 April 2019
CJ previously opened up about the incident in 1988 in his tome CJ – The Autobiography of CJ de Mooi and explained how he fended off a knife-wielding man and “half-punched, half-pushed” him into the canal after he tried to steal from him.
But profusely denied that he had “killed” him.
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In an online video, he said: “This warrant seems to have been issued because of what I said and wrote in my autobiography – they claim in my autobiography I wrote that I killed a man, I left him for dead, I knocked him unconscious.
“I didn’t. Nowhere in my book does it say that, if you please just read the book, all it says is a guy came up behind me with a knife and tried to mug me and the words in the autobiography are: ‘I half-punched, half-pushed him into a canal and walked away’, that is all it says.”
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