A former Playboy Playmate shared her personal life story and struggle with AIDS last night at Northeastern University.
As part of Northeastern’s Resident Student Association’s ‘Sex Week,’ Rebekkah Armstrong gave a two-hour speech and forum hosted by the RSA and sorority Sigma Sigma Sigma. She recounted the stories of her childhood, her adolescence and the night she contracted HIV.
‘What put me at risk was, of course, unprotected sex,’ she said. ‘But what also put me at risk was my low self-esteem.’
Armstrong described drinking, first love, abortion and drugs, and spent more than 30 minutes discussing abstinence, intercourse, oral sex, anal sex and condoms.
At the age of 18, Armstrong entered the world of modeling and became a Playboy ‘bunny.’ In the 1986 September issue of Playboy Magazine, Armstrong was Playboy Playmate of the month.
”Once a playmate, always a playmate,’ at least that’s what Hef says,’ Armstrong said.
Armstrong speaks internationally to bring AIDS awareness to teenagers and students. Her goal is to break down the stereotypes of AIDS because when she contracted the disease at 16, she ‘didn’t know anything about it.’
‘AIDS can look like your grandmother, your grandfather … your mom, your dad or even your best friend,’ Armstrong said.
‘Many students ask me, ‘Can’t you just take what Magic Johnson takes?” Armstrong said.
To this, she spoke about the numerous drugs she had taken to suppress the HIV virus and the failure of the many ‘cocktails’ (a mixture of HIV/AIDS medications).
With graphic yet candid details, Armstrong described the pain she went through to reach stable health, recounting her ‘lowest moment.’
‘I planned this; I saved thousands of pills,’ she said. ‘One day, I took them all, washed them down with Tequila, took a rented car and smashed it into a wall.’
After three days in a coma, doctors ‘admitted [her] into the psych ward.’
With hope to survive the disease, Armstrong publicly announced she was HIV positive. With support from family and friends, the former Playboy bunny still does commercials airing on the Playboy Channel and speaks to millions of students each year.
‘We planned our schedule around Rebekkah,’ said Patrick Stinus, vice president of programming for the RSA.
The demographic of students in attendance was problematic in the past for the RSA and the sorority, according to Kristin Wright, a sorority sister.
‘We had an AIDS program two years ago, and there was a lack of males last time,’ she said. ‘But this time, with a Playboy Playmate, more guys showed up.’
The approximately 70 students in attendance laughed and cried as Armstrong described her ’emotional roller coaster.’
‘The way she told her story was so emotional. She told it exactly how it was,’ said Lesa Mehl, a fifth-year graduate student in the Masters Physical Therapy Program at Northeastern.