On Tuesday, problematic TV actor Charlie Sheen stated that he has H.I.V. and that he has paid people upwards of $10 million to stay quiet about his condition.

Sheen, 50, told NBC’s “Today” show that he was being blackmailed and that he was speaking out to disprove tabloid rumors that he had AIDS and was spreading it to others.

“I have to put a stop to this onslaught, this barrage of attacks and of subtruths and very harmful and mercurial stories,” he stated.

“I am here to admit that I am in fact HIV positive,” Sheen stated, adding that he wasn’t “sure” how he got the virus.

Sheen, who is as well-known for his off-screen hedonism with drugs, booze, and prostitutes as for his on-screen antics, initially mistook his symptoms for a brain tumor.

Sheen claims physicians told him he had the AIDS virus after he underwent tests, including “spinal taps, all that crap.”

“It’s a hard three letters to absorb, you know?” Sheen explained.

“It’s a turning point in one’s life.”

Mr. Sheen stated that one of his motivations for coming forward was to stop making payments to keep people quiet. “I think that I release myself from this prison today,” he remarked.

The actor, who has been divorced three times and has dated numerous porn stars, claimed it was “impossible” that he had spread the virus to others. He said he “always led with condoms and honesty when it came to my condition.”

“Sadly, my truth soon became their treason, as a deluge of blackmail and extortion took center stage in this circus of deceit.” He didn’t go into detail about the extortion allegations.

Sheen admitted that he told a small group of trusted people in his inner circle that he had HIV, but that he paid others millions of dollars to keep the diagnosis secret.

Sheen stated, “That is money taken away from my kids.”

Mr. Sheen, 50, wrote in an open letter on “Today’s” website on Tuesday that the diagnosis had led to “a temporary yet abysmal descent into profound substance abuse and fathomless drinking,” which he referred to as “a suicide run.”

During that time, he “dazedly chose (or hired) the companionship of unsavory and insipid types.”

Sheen, who has been divorced three times, starred for eight years as the womanizing bachelor Charlie Harper on the hit US comedy series Two and a Half Men before being dismissed in 2011 for bad behavior that included cocaine-fueled parties with porn stars and a conviction for abusing his ex-wife.

He claimed, however, that he no longer used narcotics and simply drank “a bit.”

“I have a responsibility now to better myself and help a whole lot of other people, and hopefully what we’re doing today, others may come forward and say ‘thanks Charlie, thanks for kicking the door open’,” he said.

Robert Huizenga, Sheen’s doctor, stated that the actor “does not have AIDS,” that he is taking antiretroviral medicines, and that his viral HIV load is now “consistently undetectable.”