After stroke: Sharon Stone faced financial ruin

US actress Sharon Stone (66) made her breakthrough in the film industry in 1992 with the erotic thriller “Basic Instinct”. Overnight she became one of Hollywood’s biggest stars – until she suffered a serious stroke in 2001. In an interview published on July 9, the 66-year-old talks about the time after the stroke and how her life has changed. Financially too: Stone lost 18 million dollars in savings.

Recovery took seven years

Before her stroke, the “Basic Instinct” star had “saved $18 million,” a cushion that the actress had hoped to rely on during her seven-year recovery period. But Stone was “taken advantage of by people,” as the actress herself says. “When I was able to access my bank account again, everything was gone. My refrigerator, my phone – everything was in other names,” said the 66-year-old. “I had no money.”

“Many people thought I was going to die”

In addition, the stroke completely changed her way of thinking. Stone, who was given a one percent chance of survival at the time, had “a brain hemorrhage for nine days, so that my brain was pushed forward into my face.” This experience of death changed the actress’s life: “A Buddhist monk told me I had been reborn in my same body.” Her sense of smell, sight and touch were also impaired after the stroke. “I couldn’t read for a few years,” said Stone. Many people around her thought she was going to die at the time.

Today, the “Basic Instinct” star feels fit again, and despite the loss of her savings, she has no intention of giving up. “I’ve decided not to hold on to my illness or bitterness or anger. If you bite into the seed of bitterness, it never leaves you. But if you keep the faith, even if that faith is only the size of a mustard seed, you will survive.”