October 2010: Sheen’s publicist, Stan Rosenfield, tells USA TODAY that the actor was hospitalised for medical reasons after security was called to his hotel room, where he was found naked and intoxicated. Sheen said that he was diagnosed four years ago when nighttime sweats had soaked his bed, which he originally attributed to a brain tumor.
Advertisement
The actor said he has been forced to pay people who knew he had the disease and tried to blackmail him. Lauer inquired, “Is it true that on at least one occasion you had a prostitute come over to your house who, after a sexual encounter, with a cell phone, took an image of your anti-retro virus medication and then threatened to sell that image to the tabloids?” Lauer admonished Sheen to stop drinking, too. “My trust turned into their treason”, he says. “I release myself from this prison today”, he said. “I have to put a stop to this onslaught, this barrage of attacks of sub-truths and very, very harmful stories that are about threatening the health of so many others which couldn’t be farther from the truth”.
But in California, where Sheen resides, a person can be charged with a felony only if they are aware they are HIV-positive and engage in unprotected sex with another person with the specific intent of exposing them to the disease.
This morning, Charlie Sheen revealed that he is HIV-positive.
TMZ and other outlets also reported Monday that Sheen is carrying the virus that causes AIDS.
Sheen’s physician, Dr Robert Huizenga, from UCLA, told Lauer the actor now has an undetectable level of the virus in his blood and does not have Aids.
Lauer also fact-checked Sheen’s claim that it would be impossible to transmit the disease to someone else through protected sex. “We can’t say that that’s zero, but it’s a very, very low number”. In the weeks that followed, Sheen went on a public tirade against Chuck Lorre, the show’s creator, and was barred from the set.
Sheen began to make erratic statements in interviews, claiming that he was a victor for living with his two “goddesses”: graphic designer Natalie Kenly and porn star Bree Olsen.
“It’s hard to be a drug addict and be HIV positive and do 40 [episodes] a year”, Mosko allegedly wrote of Sheen and his work on the FX sitcom Anger Management in a private correspondence sent in March 2014.
Lauer asked Sheen if this behavior was because of his depression over the HIV-positive diagnosis.
“I, myself – have been to the gynecologist once a year since we split up and have always been tested across the board for everything and have come back clean across the board every time”, Olson continued. “That was more of a ‘roid rage”.
Sheen was eventually replaced on “Two and a Half Men” by Ashton Kutcher, and most of the show’s series finale was spent making not-so-subtle digs at Sheen.
Sheen told Lauer both Richards and Mueller have known about his diagnosis for a few time and he recently told his oldest daughter Cassandra, his child with a high school girlfriend. Sheen and real estate investor Brooke Mueller Wednesday in 2008 and divorced in 2011; they have two sons. He has another 30-year-old daughter and a 2-year-old granddaughter.
1995: Sheen married his first wife, Donna Peele. “Do you still feel that stigma?” “No needles”, Sheen said.
Advertisement
He said he does not intend to become the “posterman” for HIV but added: “I’m not going to shun anyway from responsibilities and opportunities that drive me to helping others”.
