Between Rock and a Hard Place

by Barry Adkins

M

Mark Christian, Hudson's Ex-Lover, Tells All

arc Christian is not a hustler, nor an opportunist. He's dead serious and just a bit misunderstood. Rock Hudson's lover of some two or three years has hired an attorney, because he claims the late movie star committed the sin of omission in a game of Russian Roulette-AIDS being the revolver, and the cause of AIDS (whatever that is), the single cartridge in an unknown, random chamber.

I met Christian at Rumbul's Pastry Shop on Christopher Street on December 7. The courteous staff sat us next to a fireplace in the rear dining room, where we were able to chat undisturbed. Christian and I talked about Hollywood, AIDS, Paris, Elizabeth Taylor and Dr. Michael Gottlieb of the American Foundation for AIDS Research (about whom Christian expressed apprehension), and, of course, his ex-lover.

Christian is a handsome 32-year-old with big green eyes, a mild manner, and, above all, a sense of sincerity. He hails from a small town in fundamentalist Orange County, California. As an adult, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue his interests in music, acting, and politics. There he met Hudson and, after dating for a year, moved into the star's mansion in Coldwater Canyon.

Christian was in New York to appear on the Donahue show, and to see a well-known AIDS researcher. He's afraid he'll get the disease, because he says there were at least nine months in which he had very intimate sexual relations with Hudson after the star had been diagnosed with AIDS. Christian

says he did not know Hudson had AIDS during this period. He has engaged attorney Marvin Mitchelson, a controversial palimony lawyer, to sue the Hudson estate and others connected with the case for $10 million. The suit was filed primarily for the "emotional distress" Christian has suffered (or is suffering) as a result of his having been exposed to the syndrome. Up until now, Christian, who is antibody-negative, has shown no symptoms of AIDS, but this does not mean he will not come down with the disease. This is the cornerstone of his suit.

The outcome of Christian's suit is likely to set precedents, good or bad. In any case, this is his story.

Barry Adkins: Describe the suit.

Marc Christian: We are charging that Rock knew he had AIDS for a period of 14 months before not only the world was told, but before I was told. A person has a duty to disclose to the people they have been intimate with that they are carrying a fatal disease that can be sexually transmitted.

When did you find out?

On July 23rd, on the six-o'clock news. And he had never told you prior to that point?

No. But, as a matter of fact, I asked him twice.

Because you were suspicious? Because I was suspicious. I'll give you a kind of background.

When I moved into the house, he was about ten pounds overweight. He went off to do a film in Israel, and when he got back, he was about ten pounds lighter. He told me that he took the weight off because he didn't like the food. Actually, he looked good. He was the weight he probably should be at six foot four. About six months after that, he dropped another fifteen pounds. When you're that tall, it begins to show immediately, in your face. I asked him, "Aren't you a little too thin?" And he said, "No, no, I want to keep the weight off, because I want to have the same kind of physique I had when I did Pillow Talk with Doris [Day]." I thought, okay, whatever. You know. I also thought,

because of the pressures of Hollywood, trying to look young longer than you really should might have psychologically got to him, and that maybe he might have a mild form of anorexia. By the time he did Dynasty, which was about a year ago now, he was down to about-he told me he was 189, but I think he was really 175. Which meant that he'd gone from 215 down to 175. And he was weak; his color was very gray. He had had a little growth on the back of his neck removed, which at the time he thought was a mole that had gone bad.

At that time, it was reported in the press that he had cancer.

Right. So he went to the doctor for that, and when he came back, he told me that it was a pre-cancer, it had not gone into cancer, but that they had removed it and everything was okay. Later, we found out that it was KS [Kaposi's sarcoma]. Around April, my father, who had had lung cancer-his lung cancer came back, and it was terminal. Rock was a very heavy smoker, and I thought, my god, maybe both of them are going at the same time, maybe he's got lung cancer. So I asked him, "Have you had your lungs Xrayed?" He said, "Yes, I have, they're fine." I said, "What about anorexia?" And he said, "That's ridiculous." I couldn't think of anything else. Suddenly, it just... I'd remembered him having sweats, at night. At that time, they were pretty heavy. I said, "What about AIDS? Have you been checked out for AIDS?" He got very angry. You know, "How can you accuse me of that!" And I said, "Well, have you been?" And he said, "I was checked out for everything, including AIDS, and I don't have it." Was your relationship monogamous? Continued on next page NEW YORK NATIVE/DECEMBER 23-29, 1985/21.

"When I moved into the house, he was about ten pounds overweight. He went off to do a film and when he got back, he was about 10 pounds lighter. About six months after that, he dropped another 15 pounds. I asked him, 'Aren't you a little too thin?' And he said, 'No, no, I want to have the same kind of physique I had when I did Pillow Talk with Doris.'

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