CHARLIE Sheen will make a "revealing personal announcement" today amid reports he is HIV positive.
NBC News said the 50-year-old star would be unburdening himself to presenter Matt Lauer on its Today breakfast show.
Although the US broadcaster gave no further details on what the pair will discuss, sources claimed he would address long-running rumours in Hollywood that he carries the virus.
The announcement came hours after a US tabloid named Sheen as the actor at the centre of speculation that an unnamed Hollywood star with a reputation as a wild-living womaniser has been secretly HIV positive for years. According to the National Enquirer, "decades of debauchery" have finally caught up with Sheen, who has spent much of the past year out of the public spotlight.
The publication promised to reveal later this week the findings of an 18-month investigation ‘that has uncovered how television’s one-time highest-paid star potentially spread the devastating virus to dozens of unsuspecting women’.
The virus weakens the immune system and can develop into AIDS. It is claimed Sheen had already started to receive a ‘regimen of medication’ to counter the effects of the disease and that his ‘outlook is positive’.
Sheen has previously refused to comment on the claims and the Enquirer said he denied them when it put them to the actor in 2014.
The star’s appearance on national TV – and on a show known for conducting sympathetic interviews – will conveniently pre-empt the Enquirer’s investigation appearing on newsstands the following day.
Tomorrow On TODAY: @charliesheen talks to @MLauer in a live revealing interview pic.twitter.com/0FMRqzZD8m
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) November 16, 2015
The son of Apocalypse Now star Martin Sheen, Charlie has a tawdry history of alcohol and drug abuse as well as marital problems caused by his use of prostitutes.
The father of five was sacked from his US TV sitcom Two and a Half Men in 2011 amid reports he was smoking crack.
Claims that it was an open secret in some circles that he was HIV positive were fuelled last November, when he was mentioned in the hack of confidential emails belonging to Sony Pictures. In one email, a studio executive chatted to colleagues about whether Sheen would be able to meet contractual commitments to his TV series because ‘it’s hard to be a drug addict and HIV positive and do 40 episodes a year’.
In 2006, Sheen’s ex-wife, former Bond Girl Denise Richards admitted in divorce court papers she had rushed to a clinic to test for HIV – she wasn’t infected – after learning he was seeing prostitutes during their marriage. Sheen’s third marriage to actress Brooke Mueller lasted little more than two years, ending with her seeking a restraining order against him.
He then started living with a porn star, Bree Olson and model Natalie Kenly, who he dubbed his ‘goddesses’. His next ‘goddess’ was former Penthouse Pet of the Month Georgia Jones, and then Sheen briefly became engaged to another porn star, Brett Rossi.
HIS TIMELINE OF DECLINE
1986: Plays Private Chris Taylor in Platoon
1990: Claims he accidentally shot fiancée Kelly Preston
1995: Admits spending £35,000 on prostitutes at tax evasion trial of Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss
1996: Arrested for beating porn star Brittany Ashland
1998: Hospitalised after a cocaine overdose
2005: Second wife Denise Richards divorces him saying he was using drugs
2009: Arrested for domestic violence against third wife Brooke Mueller
2011: Allegedly parties with porn stars in Las Vegas. Later dismissed from Two and a Half Men. Mueller gets restraining order against him
2014: Launches Twitter attack on Ashton Kutcher who replaced him on Two and a Half Men
OCTOBER 2014: Breaks off engagement to porn star Brett Rossi. She takes an overdose the following month
Daily Mail