Sharon Stone says that the way people treated her after she had a stroke made her recovery even more challenging, but she has chosen to let go of "any bitterness." During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the actress revealed that people "took advantage" of her after her 2001 stroke.
"I had $18 million saved because of all my success, but when I got back into my bank account, it was all gone," she told the outlet. "My refrigerator, my phone — everything was in other people's names."
It took Sharon, 66, seven years to recover after the stroke. In 2023, she spoke about how the stroke impacted her career at THR’s Raising Our Voices luncheon gala.
“I recovered for seven years, and I haven’t had jobs since," she said at the event. "When it first happened, I didn’t want to tell anybody because you know 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 said at the time.
In the recent interview with THR, she revealed that she was left with "zero money" after people took advantage of her during the seven years it took her to recover.
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She told the outlet that she "decided to stay present and let go."
"I decided not to hang onto being sick or to any bitterness or anger," she told THR.
"If you bite into the seed of bitterness, it never leaves you," she continued. "But if you hold faith, even if that faith is the size of a mustard seed, you will survive." She added that she has decided to "live for joy" and purpose.
Sharon's stoke resulted in a nine-day brain bleed and she was given a 1% chance of survival. She didn't discuss the stroke or her recovery for years because she was worried about how people would perceive her.
In 2023, she told Vogue about some of the symptoms she experienced during her recovery. She dealt with stuttering, weight loss, and pain. She described "weird knuckle-like knots that would come up all over the top of my head that felt like I was getting punched" that she dealt with for a couple of years. In addition to struggling with physical symptoms, she also dealt with depression during her recovery.
She told THR that the stroke "one hundred percent" changed the way her brain functions. "A Buddhist monk told me that I had been reincarnated into my same body," she told the outlet. "I had a death experience and they brought me back."
"Everything changed," she continued. "My sense of smell, my sight, my touch."
The stroke also caused her to see "color patterns" and made it so she couldn't read for some time, she told THR.
"A lot of people thought I was going to die," she said.
