After weeks of speculation,Charlie Sheen has admitted he is HIV positive.During a sit-down with Today's Matt Lauer, Charlie Sheen opened up on his decision to stay silent about it for years .
"I'm here to admit that I am in fact HIV-positive," I have to put a stop to this onslaught, this barrage of attacks and of sub-truths and very harmful and mercurial stories that are about me, threatening the health of so many others, which couldn't be further from the truth.Sheen said he was diagnosed "roughly four years ago" and he told a select number of people.He also said his decision to make it public also stemmed from the fact he had been blackmailed by some he told into paying millions for their silence..
"I've told enough that I trusted to be in the position and the situation that I'm in today." Sheen said he first realized something was off "based on this series of cluster headaches and insane migraines and sweating the bed, completely drenched two, three nights in a row, that I was emergency hospitalized. I thought I had a brain tumor. I thought it was over. After a battery of tests and spinal taps, all that crap, they walked in the room and said, 'Boom. Here's what's going on.' It's a hard three letters to absorb. It's a turning point in one's life."He also claimed that a lot of people have demanded money to stay silent about his diagnosis.
"I have paid those people-not that may, but enough to where it has depleted the future."I don't want to guess wrong, but enough to bring it into the millions. What people forget is that's money they're taking from my children. They think it's just me. But I've got five kids and a granddaughter, you know?"Regarding the people who took advantage of him, Sheen said,
"I trusted them and they were deep in my inner circle, and I thought they could be helpful." Instead, he said, "My trust turned to their treason.That's my goal. That's not my only goal. I think I release myself from this prison today," he said.Lauer also asked Sheen,
"Have you knowingly, or even perhaps unknowingly, transmitted the HIV virus to someone else since your diagnosis?"The actor replied
"Impossible. Impossible."I have a responsibility now to better myself and to help a lot of other people, and hopefully with what we're doing today, others may come forward sand say, 'Thanks, Charlie. Thanks for kicking the door open.'"Sheen has five children and three ex-wives, Donna Peele (1995-1996), DeniseRichards (2002-2006) and Brooke Mueller (2008-2011). E! News has learned that both Richards and her two daughters, Sam and Lola, are HIV-negative.
