Charlie Sheen, the volatile former star of Two and a Half Men, is reportedly H.I.V. positive, according to TMZ.
The outlet breaks the news after NBC’s Today announced that the four-time Emmy nominee would make an appearance on Tuesday’s show, in an interview with Matt Lauer.
The report follows a series of blind gossip items about “an A-list actor [who] was diagnosed with HIV.” Although commenters suggested that Sheen fits the profile described by Radar, the actor has not commented on the speculation.
TMZ alleges that Sheen knew about “his status for more than a year” and tried to keep the medical news a secret but friends he had trusted with the diagnosis started leaking the information. The outlet continues:
Publicist and crisis manager Howard Bragman has since told People that he was approached by people close to Sheen earlier this year about how to handle the situation. “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,” Bragman told the magazine.
Bragman, who has never dealt with Sheen directly, added that the actor “is getting treatment, and a lot of people in his life know about it.” He continued, “It’s been going on for quite awhile. He’s not necessarily comfortable talking about it. It was very hard to get up the courage for him to talk about it.”
On Monday, Today confirmed Sheen was scheduled on the show, and teased that the actor “will make a revealing personal announcement on Tuesday, November 17, in a sit-down interview with Matt Lauer.”
In 2011, Vanity Fair’s Mark Seal wrote about the actor’s very public implosion, which coincided with his exit from Two and a Half Men after eight seasons starring on the CBS sitcom, and his turbulent life growing up the son of movie star Martin Sheen. To read Seal’s investigation of Sheen’s dark spiral into drugs, hookers, and rehab, click here.
VF Hollywood has reached out to Sheen’s publicist for comment.
