Charlie Sheen has revealed he was ‘held hostage’ by his former male partners who blackmailed him with threats of sex tape leaks.
This is the first time the 60-year-old actor has confirmed he has had romantic connections with men as well as women.
Charlie’s personal life has been highly publicised due to his heavy substance abuse throughout the 00s, which he recently admitted has impacted his health.
His spiralling behaviour came to a head in 2011, after he had a breakdown which resulted in his dismissal from Two and a Half Men.
During this time, the actor went to great lengths to stop his sexual encounters with men from becoming public for fear of homophobic backlash.
In his new memoir, The Book of Sheen — releasing on September 9 — he discusses these relationships for the first time as he unpacks his turbulent life.
Speaking on Good Morning America, he revealed: ‘It did come with a tremendous amount of extortion. And so at the time, I was just like, “Alright, let’s just pay to keep it quiet. And just hope it just stays over there, make it go away, you know? Make it go away.’”
He added the men had ‘videoed things or whatever’ or had ‘stuff’ which they held over him.
After so many years of being ‘held hostage’ by his sexual partners, Charlie said he ‘just need[s] to be free of that.’
‘See how the world feels if people know that stuff,’ he said. ‘Because I’ve written a story all these years about, “Oh jeez, if I ever reveal that, then this has to be how I’d be dealt with, how I’d be treated, how they’d feel.”‘
In 2011, the Anger Management star was diagnosed with HIV, but he did not reveal this until four years later — again claiming he was blackmailed to keep the secret.
He added that he managed his condition with medication and could not have knowingly infected any of his partners.
However, in a 2016 interview with Piers Morgan, Charlie admitted that while he had taken precautions, he had not always been truthful about his status for fear of extortion.
‘The only couple of times I didn’t tell somebody was because the last 25 times I’d told somebody, they used it against me, and they used my medical condition for their own folly and financial gain,’ he said to the Daily Mail.
‘And the amount of despicable charlatans that I thought were allies, that then turned against me, they were coming out of the woodwork, it was crazy.’
He was then sued by an ex-partner in 2017, with the woman claiming that two years prior, they had unprotected sex before he revealed his HIV status to her.
They settled the lawsuit in 2022, with the actor paying her $120,000 (£88,804) in $10k monthly instalments over a year.
Charlie has spoken out about HIV in various campaigns, with his revelation sparking an uptick in the purchase of at-home testing kits.
The Ferris Bueller’s Day Off actor got sober in 2017 and has not returned to his acting career since, except for appearing as himself in three episodes of Bookie.
Bookie aired its first season in 2023, produced by Charlie’s longtime collaborator Chuck Lorre, who was behind Two and a Half Men and Anger Management.
In his time away, the Spin City star has focused on repairing his personal life, including his relationships with his children.
Charlie is father to Cassandra Jade Estevez, 41, with high school girlfriend Paula Profit; Sami Sheen, 21, and Lola Rose Sheen, 20, with Denise Richards; and twin sons Bob and Max Sheen, 16, with his third wife Brooke Mueller.
He told GMA that his relationships, particularly with Sami — who is an OnlyFans creator, which he initially disapproved of — are still delicate.
‘I feel like as long as everybody’s still in the game, there’s always a shot for a better tomorrow, you know,’ Charlie said. ‘I don’t really know what I did, that’s the problem.
‘I don’t know what I’m supposed to yet apologise for. But I have absolute faith that it’s not a forever thing, and her and I will work it out. You know, we have a history that’s too valuable to let, you know, some moment destroy all of that.’
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