By Joshua Haigh

Copyright news

Sheen, who is the subject of a new Netflix documentary, lived a life in tabloid headlines for decades before eventually becoming celibate and sober.

The US star’s new memoir, The Book of Sheen, is also full of shocking moments straight from his birth.

For the first time ever, Sheen has opened up about enjoying sexual relationships with other men, something he had previously fought to keep secret.

“Liberating. It’s f***ing liberating… [to] just talk about stuff,” Sheen said in the self-titled documentary, Charlie. “It’s like a train didn’t come through the side of the restaurant. A f***ing piano didn’t fall out of the sky. No one ran into the room and shot me.”

He shared in an interview with People that after years of sleeping with women, he decided he wanted to try something new.

“I flipped the menu over,” he said. ”I’m not going to run from my past, or let it own me.”

Sheen also opened up this morning on Good Morning America where he admitted that his sexual experimentation with men started when he was using crack.

“That’s what started it,” he said. “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?’ So what? Some of it was weird. A lot of it was f***ing fun, and life goes on.”

It marks the first time Sheen has confirmed rumours of his trysts with men, which first emerged back in 2015.

At the time, it was alleged Sheen was caught on video smoking crack and performing oral sex on another man in 2011.

Meanwhile, Sheen opens up about the moments leading to a near-fatal cocaine overdose in 1998 and seven trips to rehab.

He also talks openly and honestly about his HIV diagnosis in 2011, which came at a time when fears over the disease were still largely present in popular culture.

However, once considered a death sentence in the 80s and early 90s during the AIDS crisis, those living with HIV now have similar life expectancies to those without thanks to huge advances in treatment which, when taken correctly, make it impossible for someone living with HIV to pass the virus on.

Despite being celibate for a number of years, Sheen has confessed that he hopes to find love again one day.

“Oh my gosh, for so long (sex) was all I cared about, or it was near the top of the priority list. And so I just saw (celibacy) as a needed break from those pursuits. That’s not me slamming the door on anything in the future. No, I would absolutely welcome some type of companionship,” he said.