Confirming what was earlier reported by various news mediums and The Herald, American actor Charlie Sheen today confirmed that he is HIV positive.
‘I’m here to admit that I am in fact HIV positive,’ Sheen told Matt Lauer. ‘It’s a hard three letters to absorb,’ he later added.
Sheen said that he learned he had the virus ‘roughly four years ago.’ His doctor, Robert Huizenga, later said he had been working with Sheen for five or six years and that the virus is now ‘undetectable’ in his blood.
Sheen also said that he was ‘not entirely’ sure how he contracted the virus and that he felt a huge sense of relief after publicly revealing his status. Sheen said that he had told people that he trusted his status over the past few years, but also bought the silence of others.
‘We’re talking about shakedowns,’ Sheen said of some of the people he had been forced to pay to keep quiet.
‘I have paid those people. Not that many, but enough, I don’t want to guess wrong, but enough to bring into the millions. What people forget: that’s money they’re taking from my children; I’ve got five kids and a granddaughter. For some reason I trusted them, they were deep in my inner circle. I thought they could be helpful and instead, my trust turned to their treason.’
When asked if he was still paying anyone for their silence, Sheen said; ‘Not after today I’m not.’ He then said; ‘I think I release myself from this prison today.’
He also said it was ‘impossible’ that he had transmitted the virus to anyone else. ‘I always led with condoms and honesty when it came to my condition,‘ said Sheen.
Moving forward Sheen said; ‘I have a responsibility now to better myself and help a lot of other people.’
Huizenga said that Sheen does not have AIDS but that he is still concerned for the actor’s health given his history of drug and alcohol abuse.
Sheen, 50, has spent most of the past year out of the spotlight and has not appeared on television since his show Anger Management went off the air in 2014 save a guest appearance on the ABC comedy The Goldbergs in February. The National Enquirer was the first to report that Sheen is HIV positive, a story they have worked on for 18 months, and two hours after they released their story People confirmed the news with crisis manager Howard Bragman.
Charlie – who has had three wives, additional fiancees and lived with various porn star ‘goddesses’ – has long flouted traditional ways.
He has been married three times and has five children – a daughter Cassandra, 21, with high school sweetheart Paula Profit; Daughters Sam, 11, and Lola, 10, with second wife Denise Richards; and twin boys Bob and Max, 6, with third wife Brooke Mueller. He had been engaged to be married to adult film star Scottine Ross, also known as Brett Rossi, but the engagement was called off in October 2014 after eight months.