Celebrities who have revealed how many people they have slept with - one admits to 20,000

The average person has between 10 and 11 sexual partners in their lifetime, a recent study has revealed, but the question of body count amongst the rich and famous is an entirely different story altogether.

While the love lives of celebrities have famously consumed much column space in tabloids and gossip magazines, their sexual pasts often remain more ambiguous, leaving them open to speculation. That said, some high-profile celebrities have been particularly forthcoming with their sexual exploits, with some even going a step further in revealing the number of people they’ve had sex with.

Charlie Sheen

Actor Charlie Sheen, best known for starring in Two and a Half Men, once claimed in an interview with Maxim magazine that he had slept with at least 5,000 women. The interview appeared in the magazine’s October 2000 issue and was later reported by the New York Post.

During the discussion, Sheen also spoke about aspects of his sex life, including his interest in threesomes. He said some of his partners even gave him a nickname.

"The Machine."

Mariah Carey

In a preview of an August issue of Cosmopolitan shared with PEOPLE, pop superstar Mariah Carey spoke about her romantic history. Although she’s had some high-profile relationships over the years, she said her dating life has actually been relatively limited.

"I haven't had that many, but there has been a variety pack," Carey told Cosmopolitan.

"I've only been with five people in my life, so I'm kind of a prude, honestly, compared to most others in the field," she added.

Carey married her first husband, music executive Tommy Mottola, in 1993 when she was still early in her career. More than a decade later, she married TV personality Nick Cannon, and the two share twins, Moroccan and Monroe. Following her split from Australian billionaire James Packer, she began dating choreographer and dancer Bryan Tanaka.

Gene Simmons

Gene Simmons, the frontman of the rock band Kiss, once had to complete an unusual task before his longtime partner Shannon Tweed would agree to marry him. Tweed, a former Playboy model, insisted that he destroy the photos he had taken of the women he had been involved with over the years. The process reportedly took several days because Simmons had claimed to have been with nearly 5,000 women.

"I didn't do drugs in the crazy times, but I did do sex," Simmons told The Sun in 2016. "Did I sleep with 4,800 women? So they tell me. I did have the Polaroids to prove it, oh yes."

Simmons said that the majority of those photos were eventually destroyed as part of the agreement.

"Shannon and I got together with them, and we had a ritual," he added.

Lindsay Lohan

Actress Lindsay Lohan once made headlines after InTouch Weekly reported that it had obtained a handwritten list she created of celebrities she had allegedly been involved with. When the magazine published the list, it caused a huge stir across entertainment media and among fans.

Among the 18 visible names on the list were stars such as Zac Efron, Justin Timberlake, and actor Jamie Dornan, who later gained major fame for his role in Fifty Shades of Grey.

When Lohan later appeared on the talk show Watch What Happens Live, host Andy Cohen asked her about the list and how it became public. She explained that it had originally been part of a private recovery exercise.

"That was actually my fifth step in AA at Betty Ford. And someone, when I was moving during the OWN show, must have taken a photo of it. And so that's a really personal thing and it's really unfortunate."

Lohan suggested the list had been taken without her permission while she was moving during filming for an OWN project. Although she described the leak as deeply personal and regrettable, the story quickly spread and sparked widespread attention.

Wilt Chamberlain

Basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain made a remarkable claim in his 1991 memoir, A View from Above. In the book, he said he had been with 20,000 women throughout his lifetime.

"Yes, that's correct, 20,000 different ladies," he wrote. "At my age, that equals out to having sex with 1.2 women a day, every day since I was 15 years old."

Years later, filmmaker Quentin Tarantino revealed that his mother had once dated the basketball star.

"My mom dated Wilt Chamberlain," the filmmaker told NPR's Fresh Air host Terry Gross during promotion for the film Django Unchained. "She's one of the thousand."

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