Charlie Sheen is reportedly HIV-positive, and will make the announcement on NBC's TODAY show Tuesday morning, ahead of a National Enquirer report set to drop the next day.On Monday the TODAY show said Sheen would sit down with Matt Lauer to "make a revealing personal announcement." TMZ says Sheen would be disclosing his battle with the virus in the interview.
The notoriously debaucherous star has apparently been living HIV-positive for years and according to the Enquirer "potentially spread the devastating virus to dozens of unsuspecting women." Sheen claims that he has slept with over 5,000 women.
"Charlie thought he was indestructible and took no precautions—even though he was indulging in high-risk sex practices," a friend of the actor told Radar Online. Sheen doesn't know how he contracted the virus. According to Radar, the Enquirer's report reveals that he has paid off at least one partner who claims to have been exposed to the virus and faces several lawsuits that could cost him millions.
On Friday, the Daily Mail ran a blind item about an unnamed 27-year-old porn star who had sex with an unnamed HIV-positive actor who also slept with at least 50 porn stars. "If he's been seeing porn girls in the past couple of months and they're shooting right now it could start an epidemic in this industry," the anonymous porn starlet told the Daily Mail.
Sheen has apparently already begun a medication regime to help him cope with the effects of the virus, and has a "positive outlook." "Charlie's worst fear is that he will be remembered not as a great actor, but as someone who contracted the disease," a source told Radar Online.
Update: Sheen's status apparently has long been an open secret in Hollywood. In an email uncovered in the Sony hack, Sony Pictures Television chairman (then-president) Steve Mosko wrote in March of 2014, "it's hard to to be a drug addict and be HIV positive and do 40 eps. a year" with regards to Sheen's Anger Management series.
