New York, Nov 17 (EFE).– Actor Charlie Sheen confirmed Tuesday that he has been a carrier of the HIV virus that causes AIDS and that he has been blackmailed by unidentified persons who threatened to sell his secret to the media.

In an interview on NBC’s “Today” show, Sheen said his disease began with a series of “crushing” headaches, adding that “I thought I had a brain tumor. I thought it was over.”

He chose to speak publicly about the matter after paying out millions of dollars to people who had been close to him, but who threatened to let the whole world known about his virus.

“I’m here to admit that I’m HIV positive,” Sheen said on “Today,” the day after the news was leaked by various media.

“It’s a hard three letters to absorb,” he said. “It’s a turning point in one’s life.”

The actor was accompanied during the interview by his personal physician, Dr. Robert Huizenga, who said that while Sheen carries the HIV virus, he does not have AIDS.

Asked how he could have become infected, Sheen answered that he can’t be sure, and said it was “impossible” that he knowingly transmitted the virus to others with whom he had contact.

But he did say he had unprotected sex with two people, but not before telling them he was a carrier of the virus and since when both have been under the care of his doctor.

Sheen, 50, said he decided to go public with his condition in order to “put a stop to this onslaught, this barrage of attacks and of sub-truths and very harmful and mercurial stories” that have been published about how he has been “threatening the health of so many others.”

Unfortunately, he believes it was people close to him that leaked the information that he was infected with HIV.”I trusted them and they were deep in my inner circle, and I thought they could be helpful. My trust turned to their treason,” he said.

He also said that he has “paid out upwards of $10 million to keep the illness a secret. What people forget is that it’s money taken from my children.”

He also revealed that on an unspecified date, a prostitute he had sex with at home took photos of the medications he was taking and used them to become another of his blackmailers.

Sheen, wearing a suit and tie for his TV appearance, said that admitting his condition publicly means he can stop paying off the extortionists.

“I think I release myself from this prison today,” he said. EFE