Charlie Sheen: I was banging 7 gram rocks of cocaine and hurt people - I need to tell my story

Charlie Sheen was the highest paid TV star of all time when he starred in his sitcom Two And A Half Men – then after a string of drugs scandals he was fired. Earning $1.8m (£1.3m) per episode, Charlie was at the height of his popularity when the axe came in 2011, following a toxic fall out with the show’s creator Chuck Lorre over his incredibly erratic and problematic behaviour.

Now Charlie – who once boasted of “banging seven gram rocks” of cocaine and claimed to have “tiger blood” running through his veins – is telling his story on Netflix. “When you got a lot of shame about a lot of stuff, shame is suffocating,” Charlie tells the cameras.

“I lit the fuse and my life turned into everything it wasn’t supposed to be. Everything was fine for a while. Nobody got hurt, nobody got arrested. For a while.”

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Sober for seven years, Charlie uses his Netflix show to tackle the rumours, scandals, and self-inflicted chaos that have surrounded them. Facing up to his worst and wildest moments, he reveals the hard lessons that followed.

Acknowledging how he hurt everyone close to him, including his father, his five children and his three ex-wives, Charlie adds, “The whole world goes, ‘He’s the f**king guy!’... guess what that did to my head? I can’t imagine being my dad, I have hurt the people I love.”

Charlie isn’t telling his story alone – his friends and family weigh in too. Two of Charlie’s ex wives, Brooke Mueller and Denise Richards, both reveal how the man they loved slid into depravity, fuelled by drink and drugs. After his third marriage to Brooke failed, Sheen boasted publicly about living with two women, one of whom was a porn star. He later shared that he’s HIV-positive. On the show, his second wife, Denise, says, “When he started to change, it was quick.”

Charlie has five children in total but in aka Charlie Sheen, it’s his daughter Lola, who he shares with Denise, who opens up about the trauma of being the daughter of an addict. Now 20, Lola was just five when her father was fired in 2011. It would be another six years before he got sober. Lola says, “You can’t have a relationship with someone going through addiction.”

Charlie, 60, who was born Carlos Estévez, is the son of Hollywood star Martin Sheen and filmed his first movie Red Dawn in 1984. More hits followed including Platoon and Wall Street. Growing up in Malibu, Charlie was close friends with star Sean Penn. Sean also talks about his lifelong pal. “He started experimenting with everything,” says Sean. “Now Charlie is sober he’s going to tell the truth.”

While his Two And A Half Men co-star Jon Cryer, who played Alan, recalls, “[Charlie] kept saying, ‘No, no, no, I’m in the hospital now but next week I’ll be ready for the show.’”

The show is directed by Andrew Renzi, who spent seven months persuading Charlie to take part. He says, “A lot of times we are scared
of hearing from people who have done things we might not agree with, when in reality we should be listening to them. Who better to reveal these kinds of things and to talk about these missteps? I find that to be a beautiful arc.”

aka Charlie Sheen starts on Wednesday 10 September on Netflix. Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs onTikTok,Snapchat,Instagram,Twitter,Facebook,andThreads.