Vitamin G

Charlie Sheen on the Today Show: "I Am, in Fact, HIV Positive"

"I'm here to admit that I am, in fact, HIV positive." This morning on the Today show, Charlie Sheen revealed his diagnosis. Sheen said he found out he contracted HIV, "Roughly four years ago." He told Matt Lauer, "It started with—what I thought—based on this series of crushing headaches and insane migraines and sweating the bed two, three nights in the row...after a battery of tests, spinal tests and all of that, they walked in the room and said, 'Oh, here's what's going on.'" Sheen said he's speaking out now to address the barrage of rumors and set the record straight. He also admitted that people who knew about his diagnosis had demanded money in exchange for staying quiet about it. "Enough to bring it into the millions," Sheen said. "What people forget is that's money they're taking from my children. It's not just me." "I was so depressed by the condition that I was in that I was doing a lot of drugs, I was drinking way too much. I was making really bad decisions," Sheen said. Although not all of his bad behavior can be blamed on the emotional stress of the diagnosis. When Lauer brought up Sheen's

By Marissa Gold

November 17, 2015

"I'm here to admit that I am, in fact, HIV positive."

This morning on the Today show, Charlie Sheen revealed his diagnosis.

Sheen said he found out he contracted HIV, "Roughly four years ago." He told Matt Lauer, "It started with—what I thought—based on this series of crushing headaches and insane migraines and sweating the bed two, three nights in the row...after a battery of tests, spinal tests and all of that, they walked in the room and said, 'Oh, here's what's going on.'"

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Sheen said he's speaking out now to address the barrage of rumors and set the record straight. He also admitted that people who knew about his diagnosis had demanded money in exchange for staying quiet about it. "Enough to bring it into the millions," Sheen said. "What people forget is that's money they're taking from my children. It's not just me."

"I was so depressed by the condition that I was in that I was doing a lot of drugs, I was drinking way too much. I was making really bad decisions," Sheen said. Although not all of his bad behavior can be blamed on the emotional stress of the diagnosis. When Lauer brought up Sheen's famous "tiger blood" phase, he said, "I wish I could blame it on that. That was more of a 'roid rage."

Sheen said it's "impossible" that he has transmitted the virus to anyone else and that he has told every single sexual partner he's had since finding out about his diagnosis. However, he did admit that he had unprotected sex and said, "The two people that I did that with were under the care of my doctor and they were completely warned ahead of time." Sheen's doctor joined him in the interview to discuss his course of treatment as well as answer questions about any possible transmission to Sheen's partners. "We can't say that it's zero, but it's a very very low number," he said of the likeliness.

Sheen continues to take a daily cocktail of medication to manage his health. While he said that his ex-wife Denise Richards has been aware of his diagnosis for some time, he only recently told his children in advance of his big announcement. "I told my daughter Cassandra the other night. It hit her hard," Sheen said. "I have a responsibility now to better myself and help a lot of people."