Charlie Sheen: Magic Johnson Sends Message To Actor After HIV Positive News Is Revealed
There are likely few celebrities who know what Charlie Sheen has had to deal with in the days since his HIV positive diagnosis became public, but Charlie Sheen is not alone. There’s at least one big name celebrity who knows exactly what happens after someone comes out as HIV positive, and Monday, that celebrity reached out to Sheen via Twitter.
Former professional basketball player Magic Johnson urged Charlie Sheen to stay positive and fight the disease. Johnson also urged Sheen to use his celebrity status to educate the public about HIV/AIDS.
I wish @CharlieSheen and his family the best. With the advancement in treatments and medicine he can fight this disease and live a long life
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) November 17, 2015
In @CharlieSheen breaking his silence, I hope he joins me in educating the world about HIV/AIDs.
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) November 17, 2015
Magic Johnson was at the height of his basketball career when it was revealed in 1991 that he was HIV positive. The announcement would ultimately end his basketball career, as Magic faced a backlash from players who were concerned about contamination if Johnson were to sustain a cut while playing the game.
At the time of his retirement, Johnson said he would dedicate his life to battle the HIV/AIDS disease, and in the years since, he’s done just that. Johnson is said to take a combination of prescription drugs every day to keep the HIV/AIDS disease in check.
Magic has long been an advocate of HIV/AIDS awareness — going so far as to found the Magic Johnson Foundation — and it would seem that the 52-year-old Johnson is calling on Sheen to use his position to do the same.
“Following a battery of endless tests, that included a hideous spinal tap, it was sadly and shockingly revealed to me that I was, in fact, positive for HIV. The news was a ‘mule kick’ to my soul. Those impossible words I absorbed and then tried to convince myself, that I was stuck, suspended, or even stranded inside some kind of alternate reality or nightmare, were to the absolute contrary. I was awake. It was true… reality.”
Sheen went on to write that after receiving the diagnosis, he went on a “suicide run” which included an “abysmal descent into profound alcohol abuse and fathomless drinking.”
The behavior Sheen describes seems to coincide with his very public breakdown in 2011, which led to the actor being fired from his role on Two and a Half Men.
In the same letter, Sheen goes on to write that his substance-fueled breakdown led him to seek refuge in “unsavory and insipid types,” whom he admits to sometimes hiring. Sheen writes that he always told the women he was with about his condition, and the admissions led to blackmail and extortion.
“To date, I have paid out countless millions to these desperate charlatans.”
Sheen was tired of living in a “vacuum of fear,” he wrote, and he wanted to preserve some of his fortune for his children. That’s a big part of the reason he went public with the news of his disease, he wrote.
“News flash: This ends today. I’m claiming back my freedom.”
In concluding his open letter, Sheen touched on the ideas of education and philanthropy, indicating a desire to lead a life similar to that of Magic Johnson.
“I accept this condition not as a curse or scourge, but rather as an opportunity and a challenge. An opportunity to help others. A challenge to better myself. My partying days are behind me. My philanthropic days are ahead of me… I’ve served my time under pressure; I now embrace the courage, and the grace.”
What do you think of Magic Johnson’s outreach to Charlie Sheen? Do you think Charlie Sheen will make a positive impact in the HIV/AIDS community?
Find out more about Charlie Sheen’s HIV positive condition and the blackmail he faced in the video below.
[Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images News]
