US actor Charlie Sheen, as well known for his on-screen work as his off-screen debauchery with drugs, alcohol and prostitutes, has disclosed, as anticipated, that he's HIV positive.
"I am here to admit that I am in fact HIV positive," Sheen, 50, said on NBC's Today show on Tuesday (local time).
Sheen, said to have been America's highest paid TV actor at one point, revealed he has known of his illness for about four years but does not know how he contracted the virus.
He said he has been paying people who knew about his condition large amounts of money to keep it quiet and that he is coming clean to stop those "shakedowns".
"What people forget is that it's money taken from my children," he said about the extortion.
Sheen has been married three times and has five children.
Asked if he is still paying such money, he said, "Not after today, I am not. I think I released myself from this prison today."
Sheen said that when he first started feeling sick, with terrible migraines and sweating so much at night it drenched his bed, it was so bad he thought he had a brain tumour and was close to death.
After undergoing tests – "spinal taps, all that crap" – doctors gave him the diagnosis that he had the virus that causes AIDS.
"It's a hard three letters to absorb, you know? It's a turning point in one's life," Sheen said.
Sheen, son of the actor Martin Sheen, said that since he got his diagnosis he has told all of his sexual partners about it before having intercourse.
He also said he was certain that he had not passed on the virus to any of his partners.
Sheen is most recently known for the TV series Anger Management and Two and a Half Men.
He has acknowledged widespread drug and alcohol use and a penchant for hiring prostitutes.
In 2011, he had a public meltdown and Two and Half Men was shut down.
He came back with Anger Management but that has since been cancelled.
Sheen is also known for his lead roles in the Vietnam war movie Platoon and Wall Street.
AFP
