Charlie Sheen has admitted he was a sex addict who was extorted by his sexual partners during the height of his drug abuse that made headlines and nearly cost him his acting career.
Sheen had sex with men during that time, but kept it secret due to being extorted, the actor told Good Morning America co-anchor Michael Strahan in an interview that aired Friday on GMA.
“It did come with a tremendous amount of extortion,” Sheen told Strahan. “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, 60, said that over the years he felt like he was being “held hostage” by choosing to pay people instead of risking his secrets being made public.
“I just need to be free of that … and then see how the world feels if people know that stuff,” he said of his decision to speak publicly. “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, the Golden Globe-winning star of hit TV shows and movies including Platoon and Two and a Half Men, writes in his own words about his past scandals and turmoil in his new memoir, The Book of Sheen, about which he spoke to Strahan.
In addition to his sex life, Sheen writes in the book, available on Sept. 9, about his HIV diagnosis and his decision to stop using drugs the same year he publicly announced his diagnosis, in 2015.
Sheen told Strahan he went on to quit alcohol in 2017 and has been completely sober since then.
Tune into “Good Morning America” on Monday, Sept. 8, at 7 a.m. ET on ABC for more of Michael Strahan’s interview with Charlie Sheen about his memoir, The Book of Sheen.
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