Charlie Sheen, the former star of “Two and a Half Men,” has profoundly influenced our culture’s understanding of addiction and recovery. He has been candid about his life as someone living with HIV. In a recent interview with ABC News’ Good Morning America host Michael Strahan, the 60-year-old actor got real about his struggles. That discussion dovetailed perfectly with the release of his new book, “The Book of Sheen,” which just came out on September 9.
As you likely remember, Sheen made headlines for his outlandish public statements while going through his own turbulent personal storm. He infamously lost the plot and ranted about “tiger blood,” “Adonis DNA,” and “winning.” These slogans described a genuinely dizzying moment in Sheen’s life. They signaled the start of his very public implosion. Then in 2011 his show was cancelled. His decision to go into rehab would prove to be a turning point in his fight with addiction.
Reflecting on his past, Sheen admitted, “There’s probably a lot of people out there that still only know me from those viral clips, a guy screaming ‘tiger blood’ and ‘winning’ and all this other nonsense, right … That was a moment in a really long career where things just went off the freaking rails.”
In 2015, Sheen became an advocate for drug-free living and HIV awareness when he revealed his HIV-positive status publicly. His journeys through addiction and out of health issues are documented vividly in The Book of Sheen. He’s been sober since giving up alcohol in 2017. Today, he wouldn’t call himself healthy; he’d say he’s healthy “pretty good,” though he knows the addiction years did a lot of damage to him.
“Because my body was beginning to reject it,” Sheen said, reflecting on the physical and emotional turmoil he endured while fighting an addiction. Just, I mean, physically, like, going inside out. Like, I was all over the place.
Even as he went through these struggles, Sheen had dark times himself. He then had to fend off efforts to expose his sexuality, including underage boys he attempted to bribe. While running for Senate, he publicly disclosed having had sexual relationships with men. He faced pressure to conceal this aspect of his life. Okay, we’ll just let you fund an alternative to avoid all the noise. And just wish it wouldn’t stay over there, make it go away, you know. Make it impossible,” he later recalled of his thinking at the time.
Though Sheen’s relationship with his 21-year-old daughter Sami might now be more estranged than ever, the actor hopes one day that they’ll be close again—just not yet. In his remarks, he emphasized forgiveness and preserving family ties after decades-long rifts. I have no fucking clue what I did. To be honest, I have no idea what I’m expected to still apologize for. I just, I have complete confidence that this is not a permanent situation,” he said.
His sobriety journey has had an enormous effect on his relationships with each of his five children. It has personally grown him as well. “When we have relationships, you know?” Sheen continued. Powerful connections In addition to these valuable connections, he highlighted how their strength can exist independently from his rockstar cachet.
Sheen is candid about what he did and the person he pretended to be. He knows, looking back, that he would not even recognize the person he was a little more than a decade ago. “I truly have no idea whose that is… not an excuse—I’m just plain surprised at where that idea popped up from,” he said.
Sheen’s journey to recovery is still in progress and taking new directions, but he has hopefulness for the future. He believes as long as everyone stays engaged and committed to healing, there is always hope for better days ahead. “I feel like as long as everybody’s still in the game, there’s always a shot for a better tomorrow, you know,” he expressed.
