Charlie Admits: I Paid 'Millions' In Hush Money For Massive HIV Cover-Up
Nov. 17 2015, Updated 7:34 p.m. ET
Charlie Sheen admitted on the Today show Tuesday morning that he has paid millions in hush money to hide his HIV secret, bringing the most extensive and sordid cover-up in Hollywood history to a shocking end.
The National ENQUIRER revealed yesterday that the former Anger Management star has spent nearly $10 million over the past few years in a desperate attempt to keep his HIV-positive diagnosis hidden from the world.
Sheen admitted Tuesday, "I've paid those people who knew about it. Not that many, but enough that it's depleting the future. Enough to bring it into the millions."
"What people forget is that's money they're taking from my children," he said, explaining, "I've got five kids and one grandkid."
Among the people who got paid off, he said, was a prostitute who took a photo of his antiretroviral medications after a sexual encounter. Calling such people, who he let "deep in my inner circle" "unsavory and insipid types," he claimed, "for some reason I trusted them. … My trust turned to their treason."
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By coming forward with the secret, he said, the biggest cover-up in Hollywood history would finally end.
"After today I'm not paying them," he said. "I think I release myself from this prison today."
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