Charlie Sheen Has Lived With HIV Since 2011 — Here’s What He’s Said About How He Got It

Actor Charlie Sheen's path to success has been far from linear. Though he found meteoric success in the 1980s, his career took a highly publicized nosedive in the early 2000s. Charlie has admitted that a significant part of his public downfall came from his years-long battle with substance abuse.

Although the Two and a Half Men star is on the other side of his previous drug-fueled mishaps and has turned his life around through sobriety, his past behavior had permanent consequences, including a lifelong diagnosis of human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV. Since Charlie opened up about his diagnosis, many have wondered how he contracted HIV. Here's what to know.

Charlie was diagnosed with HIV in 2011. According to his 2015 interview with Today, he admitted he contracted the disease during a drug-fueled sexual encounter. According to Fox News, Charlie wrote in his 2025 memoir, The Book of Sheen, that his diagnosis came after he experienced multiple symptoms, including 50 hours of "stabbing, nonstop clusters" of headaches combined with "delirious night sweats that redefined ‘waterbed."'

The actor said the debilitating physical pain caused him to seek medical attention. It was then that his doctor confirmed he had HIV.

"I had convinced myself if I did go, the malady they’d uncover would be that of grave consequence: brain cancer, spinal meningitis, a dying liver," Charlie wrote in his memoir. "They tapped my spine as soon as I arrived, and that was an experience I woulda been fine never owning."

"When they finally got to the bottom of it, and informed me I’d joined the luckless ranks of the HIV-ers – I didn’t say a word," he continued. "I found a place way out beyond anything that wanted to be looked at, and sent a stare that wouldn’t arrive for a hundred years."

Charlie went forward with telling the truth about his disease after he was blackmailed for millions of dollars in 2015. Although he felt the stigma from others that can come with being diagnosed with HIV, he said he now feels relief after living with the disease for over a decade.

"The relief of knowing an entire discipline of high-tech medicine was at my disposal to drive that b---ard into submission," Charlie's memoir read. "To counterattack the invaders, the doctors loaded their expertise into what seemed like every IV bag in the city."

"The pricey meds couldn’t kill that f---er," he continued. "But they could keep it from killing my spirit."

While Charlie's admission regarding his HIV status wasn't something he intended to do, he has embraced his status and doesn't mind sharing his story publicly. According to a September 2025 interview with People to promote his memoir and Netflix documentary, aka Charlie Sheen, the Major League star said that, regarding his sexual history with the disease, "I do know for a fact that I never passed it on."

The actor also revealed his sexual history includes men, stating he, "flipped the menu over" and tried exploring male partners after years of being with women. Charlie shared that he's no longer worried about being judged for his past as he moves forward into his next chapter.

"I'm not going to run from my past, or let it own me," he told People. "It's f---ing liberating... [to] just talk about stuff. It's like a train didn't come through the side of the restaurant. A f---ing piano didn't fall out of the sky. No one ran into the room and shot me."