Charlie Sheen Reveals He Was Clean Before HIV Diagnosis: ‘This Disease Chose The Wrong Person,’ Actor Says [Video]
Charlie Sheen has admitted to Dr. Oz that he was clean and sober before he was diagnosed with HIV, Gossip Cop reports. Sheen appeared on Dr. Oz and disclosed that he started getting back into drugs and alcohol after he was diagnosed.
In November 2015, Sheen revealed that he was HIV positive during an interview with the Today show. According to Sheen, he was first diagnosed in 2011 but decided to go public with the diagnosis to evade blackmailers who had already made his life extremely difficult.
“I’m here to admit that I am in fact HIV-positive,” the 50-year-old former Two and a Half Men star told Matt Lauer. “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.”
When asked how much money he’s paid because of blackmail over the years, Sheen admitted that the amount was in the millions.
“I have paid those people—not that many, but enough to where it has depleted the future,” Sheen said. “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. You know? They think it’s just me. But I’ve got five kids and a granddaughter, you know?”
As E! Online reports, Sheen said that he first noticed that something was really wrong with his health when he started getting cluster headaches, migraines, and cold sweats. He was eventually 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.”
Today, it’s pt 2 of our exclusive w/ @charliesheen. Join us as he shares his deepest truths & his plan to fight HIV. pic.twitter.com/iZ8YDcoZ2z
— Dr. Mehmet Oz (@DrOz) January 12, 2016
During his recent appearance on Dr. Oz, Sheen admitted that he’s focused on his sobriety now. He said that the Today show interview was a turning point that led him back towards bettering his health on the flight back to Los Angeles.
“The geography of it was very symbolic,” Sheen explained. “I was leaving something behind and starting a new journey.”
But he’s also open to the fact that he did not take care of himself at all when he was first diagnosed, even going off of his HIV medication for a while.
“There’s a host of side-effects that are manageable,” Sheen said during his interview with Dr. Oz. “I was just curious, as I think a lot of people are. You know, you ingest something every day, and you feel a certain way. I just got curious about what I might feel like off this stuff. And then, if what was being professed, if any part of it was true, then I thought it was worth exploring.”
As Charlie readily admits, it’s a miracle that he’s still alive.
“I’m amazed that I’m actually alive. But I beat myself up from time to time about why it took me so long once I knew that I was HIV positive to really start embracing the whole physical package and the whole psychological package about bettering myself,” he told Dr. Oz.
Now that the world knows about him having HIV, Charlie Sheen says he’s focused on supporting the fight to find a cure.
“This disease chose the wrong person,” he said, adding that he’s now “focused, sober [and] hopeful,” as opposed to being “hammered, fractured, [and] crazy.”
[Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images]
