Health

Charlie Sheen to Reveal He's HIV Positive

November 16th 2015

Embattled actor Charlie Sheen is reportedly going to reveal he is HIV positive on the "TODAY" show Tuesday morning.

Sheen will share a "revealing personal announcement" with host Matt Lauer but did not specify what the announcement would entail, according to a Monday press release. The National Enquirer, the Daily Mail, and TMZ all report that the announcement will surround his HIV status.

Sheen starred in CBS' "Two and a Half Men" before he was ousted in 2011 for publicly disparaging show creator Chuck Lorre. In 2010, Sheen entered rehab for the third time in a year, a move that put "Two and a Half Men" on hiatus. Following the CBS hoopla, Sheen went on to coin the phrase "winning" and launch his "My Violent Torpedo of Truth/Defeat Is Not an Option" tour. His personal life received a lot of media attention that year, but he got back into acting with the 2012 series "Anger Management," which ended last year. He also appeared alongside performer Lindsay Lohan, another actor with a party reputation, in 2013 film "Scary Movie 5."

Sheen, who comes from a family of actors, was previously married to Donna Peele, Denise Richards, and Brooke Mueller.

Two years ago, Richards said it was sad to see the father of her children struggle with substance abuse in the public eye.


"It was a trainwreck, watching someone go on that path," she told HuffPost Live in a 2013 interview. "At first, people thought it was funny and then they saw the direction it was going [in], and it wasn't funny."

Several celebrities have openly lived with HIV and introduced the realities of the disease to popular culture, including former NBA player Magic Johnson. Johnson made a shocking announcement in 1991 that he was HIV positive and has continued to live with the disease, Mic reports.

AIDS was the No. 1 cause of death for men between the ages of 25 and 44 when Johnson made his announcement, and by the end of 1991, nearly 258,000 people were diagnosed with AIDS in the U.S. At the time, very little was known about how the disease spread.

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