Charlie Sheen is opening up about his past, including sexual experiences with men He says he's not trying to hide anything and accepts full responsibility for all of his controversial behavior: "I'm not a victim" His memoirTheBook of Sheencomes out Sept. 9, and his Netflix documentaryaka Charlie Sheenpremieres Sept 10. Charlie Sheenis fully opening up about his past in two upcoming new projects — his memoirThe Book of Sheen(Sept. 9) and the Netflix documentaryaka Charlie Sheen(Sept. 10) — and in both, he gets candid about past sexual experiences with men. "I flipped the menu over," he says in the Netflix doc and the book, of trying something new after years of having sex with women. He says he's no longer hiding from his past, but owning it. "I'm not going to run from my past, or let it own me," he tells PEOPLE in this week's cover story. In the documentary when the interviewer asks Sheen how it feels to be talking publicly for the first time about having sex with men, he says, "Liberating. It's f---ing liberating... [to] just talk about stuff. It's like a train didn't come through the side of the restaurant. A f---ing piano didn't fall out of the sky. No one ran into the room and shot me." Dave Kotinsky/WireImage Sheen, who also spoke about the subject today onGood Morning America, says his sexual experiences with men began when he was using crack. "That's what started it," he says. "That's where it was born, or sparked. And in whatever chunks of time that I was off the pipe, trying to navigate that, trying to come to terms with it — 'Where did that come from?... Why did that happen? — and then just finally being like, 'So what?' So what? Some of it was weird. A lot of it was f---ing fun, and life goes on." During his drug-fueled exploits, Sheen contracted HIV, which he tried to keep private. However, some of his overnight guests would see his medication, take photos of it and then threaten to expose Sheen if he didn't pay them. He paid them in the beginning, but then came out with his HIV status in 2015 on theTodayshow. "I do know for a fact that I never passed it on," he says of the virus. Sheen says with the book and the documentary he just wanted to tell his full truth and own his stories, and he didn't want to censor anything. Gallery Books "The stories I can remember anyway," he jokes. While he says he spent the past eight years making amends to people he'd hurt while he was spiraling with his drug and alcohol addiction, he doesn't want to play the victim in the book or the doc. Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE's free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. "It takes two to tango," he says. However, he does have regrets about going on a 20-city speaking tour after his infamous20/20interview, where he claimed to have "tiger blood" running through him. Cliff Watts "That tour didn't have to happen," he says. "I'm not a victim, but somebody should have tapped out for me and said, 'This is a bad idea.' I've combed through all the mental health manuals, and I've never found 'exploitation' as a good treatment protocol." These days, Sheen lives a much quieter lifestyle out of the spotlight, and he says he's been single for years, after going through two very tumultuous divorces, with his exes Denise Richards and Brooke Mueller. Sami Sheen/instagram "My romantic life is as uneventful as it possibly could be, and it's been that way for a long time," he says. "It wasn't even by choice, but the girls [daughters Sami and Lola] moved in [their mom is Richards], and then when they moved out, the boys [twins Bob and Max, 16, whom he shares with Mueller] moved in, and there wasn't enough room in the car. Plus, I spent so much time and energy chasing that for so long. I had to get to a place where I could be alone, but not lonely." He adds, "But I am open to love again. Probably not marriage, though!" Read the original article onPeople