VIDEO: Willie Aames -- From Hollywood To Being Homeless

Nov. 5 2009, Published 1:46 p.m. ET

Willie Aames, the TV actor of Eight Is Enough and Charles In Charge fame, said on the Today Show Thursday that he'd never dreamt his luck could run so bad -- after a two-year stretch in which he declared bankruptcy, his wife of 25 years left him and he even started cutting away at his own flesh -- on the Today Show Thursday.

Aames, who said he once pulled in $1.5 million a year, would sleep at friend's homes, parks and parking garages, and once recalled sleeping under a bush thinking, "Is this how my life turns out?"

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Aames, whose struggles will be chronicled in an upcoming VH1 special, Broke and Famous: Willie Aames, tabbed a pseudo-suicide incident he was involved in last year, in which he was cutting himself, as a "scream for help;" he declined to elaborate on the details out of respect to his ex-wife and estranged daughter.

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Aames, 49, said his marriage was one of "his largest sources of personal pride ... and when that went away, I was devastated, I was absolutely devastated."

Aames said he is working towards becoming a financial adviser and advocate to others to avoid the same financial pitfalls he had.

“I believe we can start over in this country,” he said.

Broke and Famous: Willie Aames airs on VH1 Thursday night at 10/9c.

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