The Today show is promoting “a revealing personal announcement” from Charlie Sheen for tomorrow’s show. The sitcom star sits down with Matt Lauer for a live interview and, while the NBC morning show isn’t getting into details on what the announcement will be, TMZ and People magazine both report Sheen will reveal an HIV diagnosis.
This all started to go public last week when The Daily Mail reported: “a porn star who had sex with the Hollywood superstar believed to be secretly battling HIV has told how she fears the actor may spiral out of control.” The Daily Mail story dropped numerous hints that the unnamed “Hollywood superstar” was Sheen.
Sheen’s hard-partying ways were on full display four years ago when he was fired from the hit CBS sitcom Two and a Half men during a very public meltdown during which he maintained he was “winning.” As family members, including his father, the actor Martin Sheen, publicly pleaded for an intervention, Sheen sat down for multiple TV news interviews with the Today show, Good Morning America and Piers Morgan Tonight, among others. (He praised NBC’s Jeff Rossen‘s interview (left), calling it “pure gold.”) Sheen bounced back, and in 2012 began starring in the sitcom Anger Management, which lasted two seasons on FX.
“I’ve known about this a long time, it’s not a surprise to me,” Hollywood crisis manager Howard Bragman tells People of the diagnosis. “I feel very sorry for his pain. And I hope it’s used as a teachable moment for the world. This is a disease that can affect anyone.”
Twenty-four years ago this month, NBA superstar Magic Johnson revealed he was HIV positive in a news conference. In 2013 he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper, “I’m the blessing because people were talking about it, they ran out and got tested at that time.” Johnson still has the virus but it is in a dormant state.