After sitting by Charlie Sheen as he announced his HIV-positive diagnosis on live television, Dr. Robert Huizenga joined E! News to share his excitement for the actor's future.
"Charlie Sheen has just made an incredible revelation that's really been haunting him and depressing him and pulling him down for many years," he told E! News in an interview.
"He's revealing that he's HIV-positive and thankfully he does not have AIDS. The virus that he contracted has been completely controlled with antiretroviral medication and he is healthy and we believe that by revealing this information, he will benefit on many, many different levels and I'm really excited for the future."
Sheen publicly acknowledged in his interview with Today that he has been plagued by financial problems as a result of people he once trusted extorting money from him by threatening to reveal his secret.
"I have paid those people—not that many, but enough to where it has depleted the future," he told Matt Lauer, later adding, "Enough to bring it into the millions. What people forget is that's money they're taking from my children. You know? They think it's just me. But I've got five kids and a granddaughter, you know?"
Now that the truth is out, Huizenga said a lot of the Golden Globe winner's fears rooted in his diagnosis have been relieved.
"I think that he's always been afraid in terms of revealing it to his family and kids," Huizenga told E! News. Sheen has five children and three ex-wives, Donna Peele (1995-1996), Denise Richards (2002-2006) and Brooke Mueller (2008-2011). E! News has learned that Richards and her two daughters, Sam and Lola, as well as Mueller and her twin sons, Bob and Max, are HIV-negative.
"He's always been afraid of taking personal attacks and he's always felt some shame and he's felt also a fear for his career, and I think that finally we've been able to assuage those fears and ask him to kind of release the chains of all these negative things that go around hiding a diagnosis like this and to move forward and let that help other avenues of his life as well," his physician added.
Celebrities like Lady Gaga and Piers Morgan have already taken to social media to voice their support for their fellow Hollywood star.
As for Sheen's current health status, his physician said it is accurate to say he is in "remission."
"Remission is not an unfair characterization of this process because when he was diagnosed, he had 4.4 million active virions per CC and that went to undetectable, essentially a handful if any virions, so that's a reasonable way of saying remission. We call it undetectable," he explained to E!. "We think that his risk of advancing the disease is minimal. His risk of spreading it to other individuals in that condition is also extremely low."
Huizenga compared Sheen's current medical situation to that of Magic Johnson, another celebrity who also famously publicly revealed that he had contracted the HIV virus.
"There's a lot of similarities. Magic Johnson had his news conference about 24 years ago and he had a very high level and he was put on a similar antiretroviral cocktail. it was actually experimental in 1991 when he came out and it's been well-proven and time-tested, thankfully, at this time," he noted.
To learn more about HIV/AIDS and to contribute in the fight against the diseases, visit amfAR.
Tune in to E! News tonight at 7 p.m. & 11 p.m. for more details on Charlie Sheen's HIV-positive diagnosis reveal.
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