Charlie Sheen announced earlier that he is positive for HIV.
After years and years of wild partying and breakdowns, the "Two and a Half Men" actor finally admitted that he has contracted this deadly virus.
As reported by The Washington Post, Charlie Sheen confirmed the ongoing rumors that is spreading days before his official announcement. The actor told Matt Lauer on the "Today" show that he is going public with his illness for multiple reasons, among them is that he is being blackmailed for $10 million by people threatening him on exposing his condition.
According to him, he was diagnosed four years ago and said that he has hired prostitutes over the years, some of them even extorted him over his diagnosis. He said that one woman took a cellphone photo of the anti-retroviral HIV medication he had in his bathroom and threatened to sell the image to the tabloids.
Sheen said, "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. ... I release myself from this prison today."
In a similar report by the Sydney Morning Herald, he was diagnosed of the virus when he went to the hospital complaining about terrible headaches, sweating and fearing that he has brain tumor. Instead, the doctors informed him that he was HIV positive.
He said that it's a hard three letters to absorb and as for how he got the virus, he is not entirely sure. However, once he was diagnosed, Sheen said that he was the target of multiple extortion attempts by "unsavoury types" who had been his companions. He declared that he paid out "millions" for people to keep their silence.
The actor also clarified that he did not hide his HIV status deliberately from sexual partners. When asked by Lauer whether it was possible that Sheen had either knowingly or unknowingly transmitted the disease to anyone else, Sheen answered that it was "impossible."
He further said that, without exception, ever since he was diagnosed with HIV, he had told every partner before they had sex that he was HIV-positive. In addition to that, Sheen also informed his ex-wives Denise Richards and Brooke Mueller.
People also made a report regarding the virus and the disease, saying that a lot has changed since it took light decades ago.
As noted, HIV-positive patients who take strict adherence to anti-retroviral therapy can live relatively long and normal lives.
According to Joel Goldman, managing director of the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, the likelihood of transmitting the virus are extremely low -- given that both of them are on HIV medication and the virus level in the blood is determined "undetectable."
