Elizabeth Taylor’s Friend Shares How Her Nature Changed the Way People Perceived AIDS: ‘She Was Always There for Any Underdog’ (Exclusive)

Angela AndaloroMon, November 9, 2026 at 4:30 PM UTC

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Elizabeth Taylor at a press conference for AIDS legislation in Washington, DC (March 1990)Credit: Howard Sachs/Hulton Archive/Getty -

Elizabeth Taylor traveled the world advocating for HIV/AIDS awareness, prevention and research toward a cure

Friend Trip Haenisch tells PEOPLE about seeing the star’s activism in action during a trip to Thailand

In 1991, the actress established The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation (ETAF) to support direct-service initiatives for people living with HIV, work that continues to this day

Trip Haenisch is grateful to have witnessed Elizabeth Taylor‘s AIDS activism firsthand.

The late actress’ friend recently spoke with PEOPLE about traveling with Taylor to Thailand in the early 1990s, amid the HIV/AIDS crisis. Her advocacy work in the area is one of the Cleopatra actress’ most lasting legacies in the 15 years since her death.

“One of the things that I really remember was from when we went to Thailand with her. It was during the AIDS crisis. She was there for AIDS and there was a whole wing of people with AIDS in this one area of the hospital. A lot of the doctors even didn’t want to touch those patients,” he recalled.

Elizabeth Taylor at the AmFAR Cinema Against AIDS event in France (May 2003)Credit: Pool BENAINOUS/CATARINA/Gamma-Rapho via Getty

“Elizabeth went in there and used her charm. They took pictures of her holding these people, kissing these people, and it really changed things for that country. She was saying, ‘That’s not how you get AIDS. You can be kind. You can be there for people,’ ” Haenisch noted.

“There’s no understating how amazing Elizabeth was for that. She was always there for any underdog. She had good friends who were suffering from cancer. She was always there for them,” he concluded.

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In a 2024 conversation with PEOPLE, Taylor’s attorney and friend, Barbara Berkowitz, said she discovered details about her visits with AIDS patients in the late star’s archives.

While she publicly called attention to AIDS and pressured the administration of President Ronald Reagan to address it, Berkowitz noted she also worked privately on the front lines. “She wasn’t photographed [during visits to hospital AIDS wards], because she made it all about the patient and not all about her,” she explained.

Elizabeth Taylor attends the 13th Annual Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Viewing Party in Hollywood (Feb. 2005)Credit: KMazur/WireImage

“She was happy to be anonymous,” agreed Tim Mendelson, co-trustee of Taylor’s estate and her executive assistant from 1990 onward. “If she showed up for events, obviously that wasn’t private. But AIDS was specific because AIDS wasn’t sympathetic, and so it needed her face to get people to turn around.”

Quoted by the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, the late star believed in using her celebrity for good. She said, “I have to show up because it galvanizes people. They know I’m not there to sell or gain anything. I’m there for the same reason they are: to get something done.”

on People

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”