Charlie Sheen is HIV positive, he told Matt Lauer during a much-touted exclusive Today show interview Tuesday morning.
The actor, whose drug use, rehab stints, legal issues, outbursts, on-set antics and many romantic entanglements have shaped his bad-boy image, confirmed the news, which had been swirling since Monday.
"I'm here to admit that I am in fact HIV positive. And, I have to put a stop to this onslaught, this barrage of attacks, of sub-truths, and very harmful stories that are about threatening the health of so many others, which couldn't be farther from the truth."
Before the interview, Lauer said Sheen would "address recent speculation about his health."
Sheen said that he's speaking out now because of the millions of dollars he's paid in hush money to people who he claims have threatened to reveal his diagnosis, which he received "roughly four years ago."
"I've paid those people. Not that many, but enough to where it has depleted the future (of his fortune). … I don't want to guess wrong, but enough (people) to bring it into the millions. What people forget is that's money they're taking from my children."
Sheen was diagnosed after suffering headaches and night sweats, he revealed.
"It had started with what I thought was based on this series of cluster headaches and migraines and sweating the bed. ... I thought I had a brain tumor. After a battery of tests … they walked in the room and said, 'Here's what's going on.' It's a hard three letters to absorb. It's a turning point in one's life."
Announcing his health news publicly has been a relief Sheen said. "I think I released myself from this prison today."
When Lauer asked Sheen if he had engaged in unprotected sex since his diagnosis, the actor responded in the affirmative. "The two people I did that with were under the care of my doctor and they were completely warned ahead of time."
Sheen said that he does not know how he contracted the disease and balked at Lauer's question about engaging in high-risk behaviorS. "You're talking about needles and that whole mess? No, definitely not." He also denied that his "tiger blood" period of public outbursts in 2011 was not a direct cause of his diagnosis, which he received around that time. "I was trying to blame it on that. That was more of a 'roid rage."
Sheen has not been in the spotlight much since his FX show Anger Management was canceled last year. While starring on CBS' Two and a Half Men, Sheen was television's highest-paid actor.
Now, he hopes his big reveal will help others living with the disease.
"I have a responsibility now to better myself and to help a lot of other people, and hopefully with what I'm doing today, others may come forwards and say, 'Thanks, thanks, Charlie.'"
