Watch | Charlie Sheen reveals he’s HIV positive on TV show

Television star Charlie Sheen revealed his HIV-positive status on Tuesday during a live interview with Matt Lauer on NBC's “Today” show, saying that he wanted to put a stop “to this onslaught, this barrage of attacks.”

“I am in fact HIV-positive,” he said.

Sheen said that he paid people “into the millions” to stay quiet about the diagnosis. “That is money taken away from my kids.” Sheen said that part of his goal in coming forward was to put an end to the payments he was making to keep people quiet. “I think that I release myself from this prison today,” he said.

Sheen said he had known about the diagnosis for about four years and at first thought that he had a brain tumor. “It is a hard three letters to absorb,” he said. He said he did not know how he contracted the disease.

“I was doing a lot of drugs,” he said. “I was drinking way too much. I was making a lot of bad decisions.” Sheen said on “Today” that he now had a responsibility to better himself, and that he hoped that his decision to come forward would help other people. “Hopefully, with what we are doing today, others may come forward and say, 'Thanks, Charlie, for kicking the door open.'”

Sheen said that since his diagnosis, he has never missed taking his medication.