News broke earlier today that troubled star Charlie Sheen would be making "a revealing personal announcement" to the "Today" show's Matt Lauer during an exclusive interview on Tuesday, and rumors quickly started to go around that his announcement would be that he is HIV positive. With all of these assumptions going around, several sources have now come out and confirmed that this is in fact true.
Apparently, the 50-year-old "Two And A Half Men" star has known about his health status for more than a year now but has been trying to keep quiet about it, according to TMZ. While he has kept the diagnosis under wraps, some former partners have allegedly been threatening him with lawsuits.
It all started when Sheen allegedly told several friends about this personal information, thinking they'd be able to keep it a secret, but word quickly spread to some women he has been with in the past. Once word got out, several of his former lovers contacted him because he had never told them he was HIV positive before having sex with them. Several of these cases have been settled by Sheen and in return for money, the partners have promised to keep these lawsuits confidential, and one of the settlements occurred just late last month, according to sources.
About six months ago, top Hollywood publicist and crisis manager Howard Bragman was approached by several people close to Sheen to deal with the crisis.
"The interview could open up a lot of sympathy for him, but he has to be concerned about a fear of litigation from former sexual partners. You don't take that lightly," Bragman told People. He also revealed that Sheen is currently getting treatment and that "a lot of people in his life know about it."
"It's been going on for quite a while," Bragman continued. "He's not necessarily comfortable talking about it. It was very hard to get up the courage for him to talk about it. I've known about this a long time, it's not a surprise to me. I feel very sorry for his pain. And I hope it's used as a teachable moment for the world. This disease that can affect anyone."
People also reached out to Sheen's longtime publicist Jeff Ballard, who revealed that they are no longer working together. "We had a disagreement how to handle a situation and we parted ways," Ballard told the magazine. "We have had a 35-year friendship and I love him. I wish him nothing but the best."
Other reports are claiming that Sheen has been suffering from the deadly disease for several years now, but we will not know for sure until Sheen finally opens up tomorrow. The National Enquirer has been investigating the sex-craved actor for about 18 months since it first heard about the diagnosis, trying to find out as much information as possible. The scandal was first publicly revealed in the gossip magazine last month, but it is exclusively revealing everything it has found out during its investigation in its next issue, which hits newsstands Nov. 18.
As a public womanizer and former drug addict, Sheen has spent millions of dollars trying to keep this a secret for as long as he's known about it. "Charlie thought he was indestructible and took no precautions," a close friend told Radar Online. "Even though he was indulging in high-risk sex practices."
"Charlie had sex with multiple partners since learning his HIV status without informing them of his potentially deadly HIV infection," another source added. Several women who have slept with Sheen in the past - and there are a lot of them - are now finding out this information and blasting the actor for sleeping with them and never mentioning it.
