FILM and television star Charlie Sheen has confessed on American television that he is HIV positive. It was probably the worst-kept secret in showbusiness, as rumours about his condition had dogged him for years.

He also admitted paying out millions in what was effectively blackmail money, and despite his riches, Sheen could soon be stripped of his wealth.

For this being America, the ambulance-chasers in various law offices are even now preparing multi-million dollar suits against Sheen for a range of clients, likely to include prostitutes and porn stars, as Sheen was known to spend time and money on them.

In his interview on US TV show Today, the man himself admitted he could be sued: “I would be predicting the future and assuming the worst, based on what I’ve already experienced, what’s already come down the pike and what I’ve been forced to deal with, I’m sure that’s next.”

Given the nature of American justice and the culture of sue, sue, sue, this story could run and run. At a time when 50-year-old grandfathers are usually settling down, the son of Martin Sheen is set be in the headlines for a long time to come.

HOW MANY WOMEN ARE WE TALKING ABOUT HERE?

MARRIED three times and a father of five, Sheen has had three or four relationships since his last divorce in 2011, and informed sources in America say there could be up to 200 women who claim to have been his lover or a prostitute he has visited since the time he says he was diagnosed about four years ago.

Sheen says he was honest about his condition to people that he loved. His second wife, the actress Denise Richards, says she knew about him becoming HIV positive long after their marriage, so that probably rules her out of court action. As for the rest…one prostitute even took her smartphone camera and snapped his antiretroviral drugs in the bathroom cabinet, suggesting a definite lawsuit coming his way.

WHY ALL THE FUSS?

NORMALLY the headline ‘US Actor admits to being HIV positive’ would be a small article in the middle pages of a tabloid. But when the actor is Charlie Sheen, it becomes front page news in the USA and spreads around the world instantly.

It says everything about Charlie Sheen and the US’s obsession with celebrity that gossip mag The National Enquirer claims to have spent 18 months trying to prove that he is indeed HIV positive.

The fact that Sheen comes from a famous acting family, that he was a decent film actor before becoming the world’s highest-paid sitcom actor, that he has had a high-profile train wreck of a life, and that he was willing to admit to his HIV status on one of America’s biggest television shows has put his name back in the headlines again.

It’s a place to which he has become accustomed after years of substance abuse and rehab, multiple failed high-profile relationships, dalliances with prostitutes, and lest we forget, some excellent acting.

HAVEN’T WE SEEN SHEEN IN MELTDOWN BEFORE?

MOST definitely. Practically since the man born Carlos Estevez – Sheen was his father’s stage name, borrowed from the American Catholic bishop Fulton Sheen – first saw the light of day in 1965, trouble seems to have followed him around.

He was apparently a real Hollywood brat, making his first film appearance in his father’s television movie The Execution of Private Slovik when he was just nine.

He attended Santa Monica High School and almost gained his diploma but flunked out early. Apparently he majored in baseball and acting, and clearly didn’t hold it against the school – he supports their baseball team and the school gave him his diploma live on Jay Leno’s chat show two years ago.

He also left school with a girlfriend, Paula Profit, who soon fell pregnant with Sheen’s first child, Cassandra, who is the mother of his grandchild, Luna.

His film career took off from the get-go, when his award-winning performance in Platoon in 1986 was followed almost immediately playing alongside his dad and opposite Michael Douglas in Wall Street. Young Guns and Men At Work saw him star alongside his brother Emilio Estevez and despite problems with marijuana use, his career was set for the stratosphere.

He acquired a beautiful girlfriend, the actress Kelly Preston, but somehow accidentally shot her in the arm, which is probably one reason why she is married to John Travolta and not Sheen.

The Hot Shots! (pictured above) films showed his talent for comedy, and in 2000, Sheen moved into television sitcom, replacing Michael J Fox in Spin City and then making his big move to play Charlie Harper in Warner Bros/CBS’s Two And A Half Men. The ending of that part saw his biggest meltdown.

SO WHAT HAPPENED?

WHILE earning $1.5 million per episode at CBS, things were going awry in Sheen’s private life.

As far back as 1995, his first marriage to Donna Peele broke up after he was named as a client of notorious Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss.

In 1998, he had a stroke from overdosing on cocaine, and though he appeared to settle down with Denise Richards (pictured with Sheen, below), she finally divorced him, citing his alcohol and drug abuse and threats of violence.

His third marriage to Brooke Mueller didn’t fare much better as he was arrested after allegedly assaulting her in 2009. Cue another expensive divorce.

He then moved in with two women – model Natalie Kenly and porn actress Bree Olson. That’s when his indefatigable nose for trouble got him into the biggest crisis of his life, when he was fired from Two And A Half Men in 2011 – production had been held up when he had been in rehab twice, before he insulted the show’s creator Chuck Lorre. Never a good move in Hollywood, even if you’re the star.

Sheen reacted incredibly badly. Clearly not in possession of his faculties, he went on television and claimed to be all sorts of things such as a warlock. It can still be seen on the internet.


SO IS SHEEN BACK ON THE TRACKS NOW?

SINCE then, Sheen has starred in the television series Anger Management, and his friends thought he was settling down, though his relationship with former adult film actress Brett Ross ended a year ago.

Yet in the background for the last four years has been the threat of being exposed as HIV positive. As he said on Today, at least he doesn’t have to worry about being blackmailed any more.