Charlie Sheen is getting candid about his past sexual encounters with men, saying it feels “f—ing liberating” to not hold anything back.
The former “Two and a Half Men” star, 60, spoke to People about laying his cards on the table, both in his upcoming memoir “The Book of Sheen” and the Netflix documentary “aka Charlie Sheen.”
The Emmy winner, who’s now eight years sober after decades of drug and alcohol abuse, said those sexual experiences were “born or sparked” when he was using crack.
“That’s what started it,” he said. “And in whatever chunks of time that I was off the pipe, [I was] trying to navigate that, trying to come to terms with it — ‘Where did that come from?… Why did that happen?’”
Ultimately, Sheen just accepted the encounters for what they were, finally getting to a place of “being like, ‘So what?’ … Some of it was weird. A lot of it was f—ing fun, and life goes on.”
Also speaking to “Good Morning America” in an interview that aired Friday, Sheen acknowledged that he was “probably” a sex addict while at the height of his substance abuse.
“It did come with a tremendous amount of extortion,” Sheen said, adding that he’d “pay [people] to keep it quiet and just hope it just stays over there. Make it go away.”
Trying to hide his behavior made him feel like a “hostage,” he said, particularly when people “had stuff over [him],” including photos and videos they’d threaten to release if he didn’t pay up.
Sheen also contracted HIV during his drug-fueled exploits — another aspect of his life he attempted to keep private. He said it was “a tremendous relief” to finally reveal on the “Today” show in 2015 that he had the virus.
“It’s f–king liberating… [to] just talk about stuff,” he says in the documentary, while telling People that he’s no longer running from his past, but instead deciding to own it.
“The Book of Sheen” will be released on Tuesday, Sept. 9 and is currently available for preorder. His Netflix documentary hits the streamer the following day.
