Charlie Sheen has been sober for nine years. The first thing that changed was who came to visit.

Charlie Sheen has been sober for nine years — and the first thing that changed was who came to visit. Born Carlos Irwin Estévez in 1965, he grew up in Malibu, the son of actor Martin Sheen and the brother of Emilio Estévez. By his twenties he was a star, with hits like Platoon, Wall Street and Major League, and in 2003 he joined Two and a Half Men, which made him the highest-paid actor on television. But behind the fame he was fighting addiction for decades, and in 2011 a very public meltdown cost him his job.

In 2017, he decided to get sober, and in his memoir The Book of Sheen, published last September, he looked back at that turning point. At a New York event for the book a year ago, he said he is a good guy who has done some bad things, and the only way to stay a good guy is to own it and move forward. The biggest change, he said, came at home: once he put down the bottle, his children began coming to his house, and fatherhood suddenly became a daily commitment.

The daily grind became something he started enjoying, he explained — his girls started coming over and being at the house and spending time with him, and it was really about being present. “It was kind of a gift.” He told his story in his memoir and in the Netflix documentary ‘aka Charlie Sheen’. In September, he said, his life had changed from spinning the chaos into making a connection with his children. He has stopped drinking for good, is free of alcohol, has adopted a healthy lifestyle and has been to rehabilitation, which has helped him recover. He has overcome addiction and is now moving forward.

His romantic life, he said, is as uneventful as it has ever been — “It’s just me and my dogs right now; like, I’m home.” Once, he shouted “winning” into every camera. Now, he says the only victory that matters is the one in his own home. A few things should be said plainly: the article never says the visits from his children were the first change — only that they were the biggest change at home — and it names no one who stopped coming. The “nine years” figure rests only on the 2017 decision, because the page gives no publication date and the phrases “last September” and “a year ago” carry no year.