What Really Happened Between Kelly Preston And Charlie Sheen?

Although many may not remember this, once upon a time, before she married John Travolta and way before "tiger blood" had its moment, Kelly Preston and Charlie Sheen were one of Hollywood's most talked about couples. The duo dated and then got engaged between 1987 and 1990, and they managed to make all the headlines due to an incident involving Preston getting shot. Nothing about Charlie Sheen is ever boring, it seems. 

Here's what supposedly happened, given that Preston and Sheen seem to disagree on minor details of the shooting incident: At the time, it was reported that Sheen shot Preston in the arm, leading to her getting stitches, per Newsweek. But both Preston and Sheen have denied that that's how things went down, claiming it was an accident. Then in 2011, during his My Violent Torpedo of Truth tour, Sheen tried to set the record straight about what really happened to his then-fiancée, according to E! News. It's actually a pretty believable version of events. 

Charlie Sheen revealed what really happened the time that Kelly Preston was shot while they were engaged, since it was reported at the time that he shot her. But in reality, he claims he had nothing to do with it, per E! News. While on his 2011 tour, Sheen explained (via Newsweek), "I was downstairs early in the morning making coffee and I thought she was still asleep upstairs. And I heard a f**king gunshot go off. I thought, 'She did it, she finally f**king did it. She killed herself and they're going to f**king blame me.'" He added that she looked "hot" while she was standing in her blood. That's an undeniably dark and disturbing sentiment.

Sheen added, "She explained to me that when she lifted my pants off the scale in the bathroom... the tiny revolver I used to carry... it fell out of the back jeans pocket and hit the floor and shot a bullet right between her legs. So she got hit with shrapnel from the toilet bowl." That is some very, very bad luck. 

Although Kelly Preston and Charlie Sheen were engaged, they broke up shortly after the shooting incident. While tabloids at the time made it seem like their breakup was contentious, per Newsweek, they reportedly took her engagement ring, sold it, and split the dough. So it sounds like they were at least friends. During Sheen's #winning breakdown, Preston spoke out on his behalf. Per The Mirror, she said, "We were together for a year, and he wasn't drinking, and he wasn't doing drugs and there's a beautiful person in there. He really is a great man."

Shortly after leaving Sheen, Preston met and married John Travolta. The two tied the knot in 1991 and had three children together: Ella, 20 years old, Benjamin, 9 years old, and their late son Jett, who died at the age of 16 in 2009. Preston sadly died in July 2020 after a secret, two-years-long battle with breast cancer. Sheen has not commented on her passing at the time of this writing.