Charlie Sheen made the announcement on NBC's Today show.
American actor Charlie Sheen has revealed that he is HIV positive.
The actor made the announcement during a live interview with NBC network's Today show.
"I am here to admit that I am in fact HIV positive," the 50-year-old said on the talk show.
Mr Sheen said he has known of his illness for about four years and that when he first started feeling sick it was so bad he thought he had a brain tumor. After undergoing tests, doctors gave him the diagnosis that he had the virus that causes AIDS.
"Its hard three letters to absorb, you know... It's a turning point in one's life," Mr Sheen said. The actor said he decided to come out clean about his diagnosis to put a stop "to this barrage of attacks and sub-truths and very harmful and mercurial stories that are about me that threaten the health of so many others."
He said he has been paying people who knew about his condition large amounts of money to keep it quiet and that he is coming clean to stop those "shakedowns." Asked if he is still paying such money, he said "Not after today, I am not. I think I released myself from this prison today."
America's highest paid TV actor at one point, Mr Sheen, was fired in 2011 from the TV series Two and a Half Men after a much-publicised spat with Warner Brothers over his behaviour.
Mr Sheen, the son of movie star Martin Sheen, rose to fame after starring in a number of hit films including Platoon and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, both released in 1986. He also gained popularity for his television roles in Spin City, Two and a Half Men and his latest project Anger Management.
Access Hollywood said on its website that Mr Sheen's former wife Denise Richards, with whom he has two daughters, had long known that he was HIV positive. Quoting a source close to Ms Richards, it said that Mr Sheen contracted the virus after the couple divorced in 2006.