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Charlie Sheen is speaking out for the first time about his past sexual encounters with men.
In his upcoming memoir, “The Book of Sheen,” and Netflix documentary, “aka Charlie Sheen,” the 60-year-old actor opened up about deciding to try something new after years of being with only women.
“I flipped the menu over,” Sheen said in the documentary, according to People magazine.
Charlie Sheen spoke publicly for the first time about his sexual encounters with men. (Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images)
In the documentary, the “Two and a Half Men” alum reflected on how he felt about revealing publicly that he had previously slept with men.
CHARLIE SHEEN ADMITS HE ‘LIT THE FUSE’ THAT BLEW HIS LIFE APART AS TURBULENT PAST RESURFACES
“Liberating. It’s f—ing liberating… [to] just talk about stuff,” he said, per People.
Sheen continued, “It’s like a train didn’t come through the side of the restaurant. A f—ing piano didn’t fall out of the sky. No one ran into the room and shot me.”
The actor shared that he began having sex with men after he started using crack. (David M. Benett)
In an interview with People, published Friday, the Golden Globe Award winner — who has been open about his past substance abuse — said he began having sexual encounters with men after he started smoking crack.
“That’s what started it,” he told People. “That’s where it was born, or sparked. And in whatever chunks of time that I was off the pipe, trying to navigate that, trying to come to terms with it — ‘Where did that come from?… Why did that happen?’ — and then just finally being like, ‘So what?’ So what? Some of it was weird. A lot of it was f—ing fun, and life goes on.”
In an interview with “Good Morning America,” which aired on Friday, Sheen explained why he kept his sexual encounters with men a secret.
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“There was another element to it that it did come with a tremendous amount of extortion,” Sheen said. “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.'”
Sheen shared that he felt he was being “held hostage” adding, “It’s a bad feeling.”
“I just need to be free of that … and then 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.'”
Sheen candidly opened up about his experiences in his new memoir and documentary. (Penske Media)
During a 2015 appearance on “Today,” Sheen revealed that he was HIV positive. He told People magazine that he contracted the virus during his years of drug-fueled encounters. Sheen explained that he wanted to keep his HIV diagnosis private and was also being extorted over it at the time.
The actor recalled that people who stayed overnight at his home would take photos of his HIV medication and threaten to expose his status unless he paid them. He said he initially gave in but eventually decided to disclose his diagnosis himself.
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The “Anger Management” star insisted that he had never given HIV to any of his former sexual partners.
“I do know for a fact that I never passed it on,” Sheen told People.
Sheen said that he has been making amends to those affected by his past behavior. (Michael Buckner/Penske Media via Getty Images)
Sheen said he wanted to be transparent in sharing his life experiences in his memoir and documentary.
“The stories I can remember anyway,” he joked.
Sober since 2017, Sheen told People he has focused on making amends to those affected by his behavior. He also said that he didn’t want to portray himself as a victim in either his memoir or his documentary.
“It takes two to tango,” he said.
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The actor explained that he is no longer trying to hide any part of his past.
“I’m not going to run from my past, or let it own me,” he said.
Sheen’s memoir, “The Book of Sheen,” will be released on Sept. 9 and his documentary, “aka Charlie Sheen,” will begin streaming on Netflix on Sept. 10.