Graham Norton opens up about ‘frightening’ time living in San Francisco commune in the 1980s

TV presenter Graham Norton has spoken of his “frightening” time living in a commune in California at the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis.

Best-known for hosting The Graham Norton Show on BBC1, where he regularly interviews celebrity guests, as well as being a judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, Norton told the Queerphobia podcast about his life before moving to London.

Norton studied English and French at University College Cork in the 80s but never completed his degree after suffering a breakdown in his mental health, and subsequently dropping out.

He moved to San Francisco in 1983, at the age of 20, and spent a year living in a hippie commune called Stardance, on Fulton Street – which runs from the ocean to the city centre.

While there, he worked as a waiter and was able to explore his sexual identity, later realising that he was gay. He called it a scary time because of the spread of AIDS, which led the city to “close all the saunas and sex clubs”.

He continued: “The fear of AIDS had sort of taken over San Francisco. For me, that was a frightening place. When I came to London, it was only starting to appear. I remember mutual friends sitting me down and telling me [my friend] Sid was sick. He was the big loss for me and for our little circle.”

In an interview with the Guardian in 2008, Norton reflected on his time at the commune and how San Francisco was “a gay Disneyland” in the 80s.

“At the time, I was thinking: ‘I should be having lots of sex, what’s wrong with me?’ But looking back, it’s like ‘Thank God’,” he said, noting that he might have had a lucky escape from the pandemic.

Norton also discussed his experience on The One Show, where he admitted being “very naive” when he moved to San Francisco and ended up in the commune because the rent was cheap!

Crediting the city for setting him up for the rest of his life, he added: “It was an amazing, formative time in my life, and these hippies were brilliant to me.”

Share your thoughts! Let us know in the comments below, and remember to keep the conversation respectful.