At 65, Sharon Stone Revisits Life-Threatening Health Condition When She ‘Lost Everything’ During Peak Of Her Career

Oct 11, 2023

Sharon Stone is an American actress, producer and model. She was prominent in the 1990s when she was known for portraying femme fatale figures in movies. She has received critical acclaim and accolades for her talent as an actress. 

Stone began her career as a model and made her film debut in “Stardust Memories.” She went on to find fame starring in movies such as “King Solomon's Mines,” “Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold,” “Total Recall,” “Basic Instinct,” “Last Action Hero,” “The Quick and the Dead” and “Casino.”

She proved she was more than just a pretty face as well, earning critical acclaim and accolades for her talent as an actress, including being nominated for an Academy Award for her role as Ginger McKenna in “Casino.” She even won a Golden Globe for the role. She has also won an Emmy Award for guest starring in “The Practice.”

She received her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1995. Owing to her incredible screen presence, Stone is still an in-demand actress now, despite being a veteran in the entertainment business, making appearances in contemporary shows such as “The New Pope,” “Ratched” and “Murderville.”

Even though she has had an amazing and successful career, Stone has also experienced personal problems, especially with her love life. She got married twice in the past; the first one was with famed television producer Michael Greenburg from 1984 to 1990, and the second one was with Phil Bronstein from 1992 to 1994. 

Despite her personal and health struggles, which she kept private for many years, in October 2023, she proved she was ready to share her story with the world.

According to an article published by The Hollywood Reporter in 2022, Sharon Stone attended the publication company’s Raising Our Voices luncheon gala at the Audrey Irmas Pavilion and GenSpace in Los Angeles, California.

During her speech at the time, the actress opened up about her experience after battling a stroke and brain hemorrhage, which only gave her a 1% chance of survival, in 2001 and how it severely impacted not just her physical well-being but also her career. 

“I recovered for seven years, and I haven’t had jobs since,” Stone said.

The actress later noted that she didn’t want to tell anybody about her medical condition at the time because of her fear of losing her career.

“If something goes wrong with you, you’re out. Something went wrong with me — I’ve been out for 20 years. I haven’t had jobs. I was a very big movie star at one point in my life,” she added.

Having a stroke in 2001 was unfortunate timing for the actress as she was at the peak of her career. Five years before she suffered from her health issues, Stone was nominated for an Oscar award for the movie “Casino.”

In a separate interview with People Magazine in 2003, the actress opened up more about the lasting effects of her 2001 stroke as she told the outlet that she needed to have a good night’s rest in order for her medications to work.

"I need eight hours of uninterrupted sleep for my brain medication to work so that I don’t have seizures,” she said.

Regarding her recovery process, the 65-year-old revealed that initially, she was “stuttering” and it even affected her vision as she was not “seeing correctly.” In addition, the actress also had memory loss for a long period.

At the time, she had just adopted her child Roan with her ex-husband Phil Bronstein. 

"I lost everything… I lost all my money. I lost custody of my child. I lost my career. I lost all those things that you feel are your real identity and your life,” she recalled.

It also affected her career as she considered herself as a “disability hire,” and it was something that hindered her from being hired to work on projects.

“I don’t get hired a lot. These are the things that I’ve been dealing with for the past 22 years, and I am open about that now,” she added.

Even though Stone admitted that she never got most of what she had in the prime years of her career, she reached a point in her life where she was “okay with it” and recognized that she was “enough.”

Fortunately, the actress didn’t shy away from sharing her story with her fans and supporters, but the courage of her coming forward with such a devastating story stemmed from her childhood as she came from a “very broken family.”

“It took me a long time to understand that I had a life of my own and that I didn’t have to fix it for everybody else, and that it was okay for me to receive care, for me to be enough as a disabled person,” she added.

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