Charlie Sheen: 'I Am in Fact HIV Positive'

Early this morning, actor Charlie Sheen told the world that he's been living with HIV.

"I am here to admit that I am in fact HIV positive," the 50-year-old actor told Matt Lauer on the Today show.

"I have to put a stop to this barrage of attacks and sub-truths and very harmful and mercurial stories that are about me that threaten the health of so many others," he said. "[It] couldn't be farther from the truth."

Sheen says he was diagnosed about four years ago.

"I found out four years ago. It started with what I thought based on a series of cluster headaches and insane migraines and sweating the bed, completely drenched two to three nights in a row I was emergency hospitalized. I thought I had a brain tumor. Thought it was over. After that had tests. They walked in the room and said boom here is what's going on. It's a hard three letters to absorb. You know? It's a turning point in ones life."

Sheen also admitted that he'd paid people to keep his diagnosis a secret.

"That is true and I have paid those people," said the former Two and a Half Men star, who was fired from the show in 2011 after a feud with the show's creator. "Not that many. But enough to where it is depleting the future..."

When asked how many people he'd paid off, Sheen couldn't find a solid number.

"Jeez, I don't want to guess wrong but enough to bring it into the millions and that's, what people forget is that's money they're taking from my children. They think its just me. I have five kids and a granddaughter."

He says that "after today," he'll no longer pay people for their silence.

When asked if he's had unprotected sex since his diagnosis, Sheen admitted he has.

"Yes, but the two people who I did that with were under the care of my doctor and they were completely warned ahead of time."

Sheen also says that he's told all his sexual partners since his diagnosis that he's HIV positive.

Update: In the second segment of the interview Sheen appeared with his doctor, Robert Huizenga. Sheen says his HIV has been so suppressed by the medication that it's barely detectable. He also clarified that he does not have AIDS and will not be making HIV his new raison d'etre . "I'm not going to be the poster man, for HIV prevention," Sheen said. "But I will pick my spots." His doctor added that he is at a "very, very low risk" for transmitting to anyone." Source: New York Daily News.