Danny Roberts on ‘The Real World Homecoming: New Orleans’ and Why Revisiting His Relationship With Paul ‘Needed to Happen’

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment WriterThere are few alumni of MTV’s “The Real World” who have had as lasting a legacy as Danny Roberts.

When the Georgia native stepped into the house for 2000’s “The Real World: New Orleans,” he was a strikingly handsome 22-year-old college graduate who was, at that point, still one of the few openly gay people on television. That would’ve been enough to make Danny famous, but his ongoing relationship with Paul Dill — a U.S.

Army captain during the era of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy — made Danny a sensation. To protect Paul’s identity, “Real World” producers agreed to blur his appearance, which added to the intensity of their relationship and made the couple overnight poster boys for the LGBTQ rights movement.

Today, however, Danny lives in seclusion in a remote cabin in Vermont. Other than regular posts to his Instagram account, including of his six-year-old daughter, he has largely avoided the spotlight, especially after his relationship with Paul ended badly in the 2000s.

But last fall, he agreed to join his other castmates — Kelley Wolf (née Limp), Melissa Beck (née Howard), Julie Stoffer, David Broom, Matt Smith and Jamie Murray — to shoot “The Real World Homecoming: New Orleans,” the third in the ongoing Paramount+ series reuniting the casts of “The Real World.”For roughly two weeks, the seven former strangers — most of whom fell out of touch with one another after the show — lived together again in a New Orleans mansion. Through a series of edited vignettes from the original series they watched together on the house television, the cast reassessed old memories, grievances, and relationships — especially the one between Danny and Paul.But as Danny explained in a