Sharon Stone is opening up about her life-changing experience following her 2001 stroke and the impact it had on her finances and mindset, told Page Six.
In a revealing interview with The Hollywood Reporter published on July 9, the 66-year-old “Basic Instinct” star detailed the harrowing events that followed her stroke, which resulted in a nine-day brain bleed and forced her to take a step back from her Hollywood career.
“A Buddhist monk told me that I had been reincarnated into my same body,” Stone said. “I had a death experience and then they brought me back. I bled into my brain for nine days, so my brain was shoved to the front of my face. It wasn’t positioned in my head where it was before.”
During this traumatic period, Stone experienced significant changes in her sensory perceptions and cognitive abilities. “My sense of smell, my sight, my touch. I couldn’t read for a couple of years. Things were stretched and I was seeing color patterns. A lot of people thought I was going to die,” she explained.
Unfortunately, this vulnerable time in her life also led to significant financial loss. Stone recounted how she quickly lost her $18 million savings due to people taking advantage of her condition. “I had $18 million saved because of all my success, but when I got back into my bank account, it was all gone. My refrigerator, my phone — everything was in other people’s names. I had zero money,” she revealed.
Despite these hardships, Stone has chosen to focus on the positive aspects of her life. “I decided to stay present and let go,” she said. “I decided not to hang onto being sick or to any bitterness or anger. If you bite into the seed of bitterness, it never leaves you. But if you hold faith, even if that faith is the size of a mustard seed, you will survive.”
Stone emphasized that this outlook on life has been crucial to her recovery and current happiness. “So, I live for joy now,” she added. “I live for purpose.”
In a previous interview with PEOPLE, Stone shared that during the early stages of her recovery, she struggled with vision issues and memory loss, and even experienced unusual physical symptoms such as “weird knuckle-like knots” on her head, which felt like being “punched.”
Stone also admitted to initially hiding her condition due to fear and embarrassment. Last year, she told Vogue, “I was afraid to go out and didn’t want people to know. I just thought no one would accept me.” However, over time, she has become more open about her experience. “I’ve become more comfortable with publicly saying what’s really happened to me,” she told PEOPLE. “For a long time, I wanted to pretend that I was just fine.”
Through resilience and a positive outlook, Sharon Stone continues to inspire others with her story of survival and personal growth.