Rather than continue with the "Project Runway" competition, Jack Mackenroth left the series to seek medical treatment for a contagious staph infection. To fill the void left by Jack Mackenroth's departure, Chris March, who was last eliminated, returned to "Project Runway."

People interviewed Jack Mackenroth about his departure from the show:
"I just got to a point where I couldn't even concentrate. I was exhausted. As the bacterial infection spreads, within 48 hours, you get a fever. My work was suffering and I was like, 'You know what? I really don't want to leave but I can't stay here.' It was not an HIV related thing but I have to be extra cautious.

"There was an issue of contagion so I didn't feel comfortable. It's bacteria. Anyone can get it by touch. So that's not fair. And number two, [the medication] is such a strong antibiotic that it takes two hours to administer [intravenously]. It's four hours a day that I would have been gone. "

You're very open about being HIV positive on the show (Jack has lived with HIV for 17 years). Have you received any feedback from viewers?
"I get a lot of emails that are really touching from people that just found out they're HIV positive. I try to answer all those and I read all of them and it's amazing. If I can do a little bit of good in that respect then I've won at the end of the day."

We hear you're dating Top Chef's Dale Levitski?
"I always thought he was hot! On my MySpace page there's this little section that says who do you want to meet? And I put I want to meet Dale Levitski from Top Chef! I just threw it out there into the universe. And so a friend of his saw my page, told Dale, and then Dale messaged me. We started chatting and then we ran into each other at a party in New York City and we just clicked."

Last update: 12-17-2007 15:05