Charlie Sheen said Monday that his father, actor Martin Sheen, signed the arrest warrant that led to his arrest after a drug overdose in 1998 — an act the younger Sheen described at the time as “the biggest betrayal you could possibly endure,” but one he now views as a form of tough love.
Speaking with Michael Strahan on Good Morning America, the 60-year-old former Two and a Half Men star recounted how his life “was in shambles” after he overdosed on injected cocaine and suffered a stroke. The incident occurred while he was on probation for an allegation of battering then-girlfriend Brittany Ashland, he said, and he described a scene from his memoir in which a bodyguard warns that U.S. marshals were on the way and they had five minutes to leave.
Instead of sending him straight to jail, the Malibu Municipal Court opted to extend his probation by a year and ordered rehabilitation, records and reporting at the time indicated. Charlie Sheen said he initially felt betrayed when his father signed the warrant but “saw it as love eventually.” He said his father, now 85, remained a steady presence through the turmoil and has continued to support him in recent years.
Martin Sheen has read his son’s new memoir, The Book of Sheen, which Charlie said will be released Tuesday. "Dad was like halfway through [my book],” Charlie told Strahan, relaying his father’s reaction that Charlie’s “use of humor in your darkest moments is a gift to the reader.”
In the interview and in promotional material for a new Netflix two-part documentary, AKA Charlie Sheen, the actor reflected on the personal costs of his addiction. A teaser for the special, which is set to premiere Sept. 10, shows Charlie becoming emotional while discussing how his substance use affected his father. "I can’t imagine being my dad. I really hurt the people I love," he said in the teaser.
Charlie Sheen also linked his substance use to a childhood stutter, saying that drinking “softened the edges” and provided what he called a kind of freedom of speech. He said he now hopes to make amends with people he harmed during his downward spiral and to be recognized as a writer through his memoir.
"This story should have ended 100 times, 20 years ago, and it didn’t," he said on GMA, adding that the period that followed may contain "some of the real gold" to be discovered in whatever comes next. He has said he would like to reconnect with those who have not forgiven him, if circumstances allow.
The younger Sheen’s remarks join other recent public efforts to recount and contextualize his struggles with addiction, including the memoir and the Netflix documentary. Martin Sheen’s public commentary on his son’s work has been supportive: Charlie relayed his father’s praise for the way he used humor to write about his darkest moments.
Charlie Sheen’s career has included high-profile television and film roles, and his struggles with substance abuse and legal issues have been widely reported for decades. The new memoir and documentary revisit those episodes with the actor’s own account, while family reactions and court decisions from the late 1990s remain part of the public record and his current reflections.