Charlie Sheen, once the poster child for Hollywood excess and tabloid spectacle, is stepping into a new spotlight—one of his own making. With the release of his memoir, The Book of Sheen (September 9, 2025), and a companion Netflix documentary, aka Charlie Sheen (September 10, 2025), the Emmy-winning actor is baring his soul like never before. These projects, as reported by People and OK!, offer the most unfiltered account yet of Sheen’s tumultuous journey through fame, addiction, and self-acceptance.
In both the book and the documentary, Sheen speaks openly about a chapter of his life he had long kept under wraps: his sexual encounters with men. The revelation, he explains, is tied directly to his years of crack cocaine use. “That’s what started it,” Sheen told Good Morning America’s Michael Strahan in an interview aired September 5, 2025. “That’s where it was born, or sparked. And in whatever chunks of time that I was off the pipe, trying to navigate that, trying to come to terms with it—‘Where did that come from? Why did that happen?’—and then just finally being like, ‘So what?’”
Sheen’s candor is striking, especially given his long history of public bravado and private turmoil. For years, the star of Two and a Half Men was known less for his acting chops and more for his headline-grabbing antics—what he once dubbed his “tiger blood” era. Now, at 60 and eight years sober, Sheen describes the act of telling his story as profoundly freeing. “It’s f------ liberating to just talk about this stuff,” he declares in the Netflix documentary, according to OK!. He even jokes about the relief honesty brings: “It’s like a train didn’t come through the side of the restaurant. A f------ piano didn’t fall out of the sky. No one ran into the room and shot me.”
But Sheen’s journey toward self-acceptance was far from straightforward. He admits that during the height of his substance abuse, he was “probably” a sex addict. “It did come with a tremendous amount of extortion,” Sheen revealed to People. He described paying people to keep quiet about his behavior, living in fear that compromising photos or videos would be released if he didn’t comply. “Make it go away,” he’d plead, feeling like a “hostage” to those who had “stuff over” him.
This constant threat of exposure, Sheen says, took a heavy toll. It was a life spent looking over his shoulder, never fully at ease. Yet, as he recounts in both the memoir and documentary, the decision to stop running from his past and instead own it has been transformative. “Some of it was weird. A lot of it was fun. And life goes on,” he reflects. “I finally got to a place where I said, ‘So what? So what?’”
One of the darkest and most closely guarded secrets of Sheen’s past was his HIV diagnosis. He contracted the virus during his drug-fueled years but kept it hidden for a long time, fearing the consequences of disclosure. The turning point came in 2015, when he chose to go public on NBC’s Today show. “It’s a tremendous relief to just talk about stuff,” he says in the documentary. Sheen has always maintained, “I do know for a fact that I never passed it on.”
The years following his announcement were a whirlwind. Sheen embarked on a chaotic 20-city speaking tour—a decision he now views with regret. “I’m not a victim. It takes two to tango,” he told People. “That tour didn’t have to happen. Somebody should have tapped out for me and said, ‘This is a bad idea.’” Rather than dwell on the missteps, Sheen is using his memoir and documentary to reflect, recalibrate, and, ultimately, reclaim his narrative.
These days, Sheen’s life is a far cry from the wild parties and public meltdowns that once defined him. He’s focused on raising his four children—daughters Sami and Lola with Denise Richards, and twin sons Bob and Max with Brooke Mueller. “My romantic life is as uneventful as it possibly could be,” he admits, with a wry smile. Still, he’s not ruling out future love: “But I am open to love again. Probably not marriage, though.”
Sheen’s willingness to address his sexual experiences with men, his addiction, and his HIV status head-on marks a profound shift—not just for the actor himself, but for the way such stories are told in Hollywood. For decades, the industry has been rife with secrets, shame, and the threat of exposure. By choosing transparency, Sheen is, in his own words, “no longer running from [his] past, but instead deciding to own it.”
The release of The Book of Sheen and aka Charlie Sheen is already sparking conversation. Fans and critics alike are reassessing the actor’s legacy, weighing his honest self-portrait against the chaos of his earlier years. Some see his openness as a sign of growth and maturity; others, perhaps, as a final bid for relevance. But if Sheen’s words are any indication, he’s less concerned with public opinion than with personal truth.
It’s a remarkable arc for a man who, not so long ago, seemed destined to become another cautionary tale. Instead, Sheen is writing his own next chapter—one that embraces both the darkness and the light. As he told People, “I’m not playing the victim. I’m just telling my story.”
For all the headlines, the scandals, and the hard-won lessons, Charlie Sheen’s latest act is perhaps his most surprising yet: a story of reckoning, redemption, and, above all, radical honesty.
