'I HAD TO MAKE A RADICAL CHANGE'

AFTER DECADES OF STRUGGLING WITH ADDICTION, THE ACTOR IS NOW SIX YEARS SOBER AND LOVING HIS LIFE: I'M JUST THRILLED TO STILL BE HERE' 

- GILLIAN TELLING

After publicly battling addiction for years, Charlie Sheen decided in 2017 that it was time to fix himself. "I had to go away for a little while, to reprioritize the stuff that matters," he says. One morning he quit drinking cold turkey. He began working out, eating well and throwing his energy into being a single parent to his twin sons Max and Bob, now 14. (Their mom is his ex-wife Brooke Mueller.) “I'm just thrilled to be in the mix still," says Sheen, 58, who is making a comeback of sorts with a small role in the Max comedy series Bookie, co-created by his old Two and a Half Men boss Chuck Lorre. "Most people who lived the way I did aren't here anymore to continue their own story."

Born into a family of actors-his father is The West Wing star Martin Sheen, 83, and his older brother is '80s Breakfast Club heartthrob Emilio Estevez, 61-Sheen had early success in movies like Platoon and Major League. But it wasn't until he took on the role of the delightfully hedonistic Charlie Harper on the sitcom Two and a Half Men in 2003 that he became one of Hollywood’s most successful stars, earning well over $1 million per episode at the show’s peak. “That television fan base opened up a whole different reality,” he says. “My friend used to tell me, ‘Buddy, you’re popular [with viewers] from age 2 to toothless.’”