Charlie Sheen Reveals How Lifelong Struggle with Stuttering Led Him to Drink

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Actor Charlie Sheen, on our list of Famous People Who Stutter, sat down with Good Morning America host Michael Strahan to discuss his stutter, rehab, and using alcohol to “soften the edges.”

Actor Charlie Sheen is opening up about a lifelong struggle that he says first led him to start drinking, beginning a years-long battle with substance abuse.

Sheen said he has struggled with stuttering his whole life and that he learned to drink to feel freer.

"Drinking just ... it softened the edges," Sheen told Good Morning America co-anchor Michael Strahan in an interview about his new memoir, "The Book of Sheen." "It gave me just freedom of speech."

Stuttering Foundation Founder Malcolm Fraser discussed the use of alcohol to manage stuttering in his seminal book “Self-Therapy for the Stutter,” first publish in 1978 and now in its 11^th edition.

In an effort to relax, many stutterers have experimented with drinking alcoholic beverages or getting slightly intoxicated. Although this may result in stuttering changes for some people, the effect is only temporary. Obviously, it cannot be recommended.

Fraser’s conclusions were backed by research by Conrad Wedberg, M.A,. formerly Director of Speech Therapy Alhambra City Schools, California and C. S. Bluemel, M.D., Late Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and the American College of Physicians.

According to the GMA interview, Sheen said it was not until he starred on the sitcom "Spin City" in 2000 that he opened up to his co-stars and co-workers on set about his stuttering.

“When I got the first script for 'Spin' and I was going through it, I was like, 'Oh, that's a problem. That's gonna be a problem. I can't say that,'" Sheen recalled, adding that his decision to be public about his stutter felt liberating. "So yeah, when in doubt, just be human enough to be vulnerable, and to know that it's okay to ask for help."

Charlie Sheen told Strahan he went on to quit alcohol in 2017 and has been completely sober since then.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH INTERVIEW

Posted Sept. 10, 2025

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I am writing in response to "The importance of voice" (May 29), which mentioned that famous actor James Earl Jones struggled with stuttering. Another famous voice that you cited was the trademark breathy voice of Marilyn Monroe; however, you did not make mention of the fact that Marilyn Monroe also struggled with stuttering at various points in her life, sometimes very painfully.

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