Sharon Stone, the acclaimed actress, recently shared her harrowing experience with a stroke that not only threatened her life but also wiped out her finances, leaving her with ‘zero money’.
Stone began her career in the spotlight as a model during her teenage years before transitioning into acting. Her early role in Woody Allen’s 1980 film “Stardust Memories” paved the way for her iconic performance in “Basic Instinct” in 1992.
However, at the peak of her career in 2001, when she was just 43, Stone suffered a stroke that drastically altered her life. She was given a mere one percent chance of survival, battling a brain bleed that persisted for nine days.
Stone described the aftermath of her stroke in a conversation with Brain and Life, saying, “My recovery period was hell, quite frankly.
“I lost 18 percent of my body mass in nine days. I came out of the hospital looking like teeth on a stick. At that time, they didn’t have stroke recovery programs. Months later, I was really, really struggling.”
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Stone revealed that the stroke pushed her brain ‘to the front of [her] face’, altering her fundamental senses and capacities.
“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 elaborated.
As a result, Stone had to significantly scale back her professional commitments and depend on her accumulated wealth. Despite having saved a cool $18 million, she soon found her bank account drained.
“I had $18 million saved because of all [my] success”, Stone recounted, “however, when I got back into my bank account after my stroke, it was all gone.”
She disclosed how during her vulnerability, people close to her took advantage. “People took advantage of me over that time […] My refrigerator, my phone – everything was in other people’s names.
“[…] I had zero money.”
Despite the overwhelming challenges, Stone chose to focus on recovery and emotional healing, avoiding bitterness and resentment.
The stroke, Stone said, completely reshaped her perspective on life and self-identity.
A Buddhist monk even told her she ‘had been reincarnated into [the] same body’.
Stone has since adopted a philosophy of living for joy and purpose, emphasizing, “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 a seed, you will survive. So, I live for joy now. I live for purpose.”