Sharon Stone Reveals She Lost Her Entire Fortune After Stroke

Sharon Stone has revealed that after a stroke in 2001, she was left without savings because "people took advantage" of her. The Hollywood actress lost $18 million and the illness completely changed her outlook.

The Basic Instinct star told The Hollywood Reporter that she had amassed a sizable fortune during her successful film career in the 1990s, but was left penniless after suffering a brain hemorrhage in 2001 and her subsequent recovery. It turns out that the actress's situation was taken advantage of by people who were certain she would not recover from the stroke.

"I had $18 million in savings from all my success, but when I looked at my bank account one day, it was all gone. My refrigerator, my phone, everything was in other people's names. I had no money," Sharon shared.

In an interview, Stone, 66, said the disease had changed her outlook completely. "One hundred percent. I had a death experience and then I was brought back. A Buddhist monk told me I was reincarnated in the same body. I bled for nine days, so my brain was pushed to the front of my face. It wasn't in my head the way it used to be. And while that was happening, everything changed. My sense of smell, my sense of sight, my sense of touch. I couldn't read for years. Things were stretching and I was seeing patterns of color. A lot of people thought I was going to die."

After her stroke, the actress spent several years recovering and was able to move on after losing everything because she decided to "stay in the present and let go." She gradually returned to filming, but decided to master a second profession as an artist. "I decided not to hold on to my illness, to bitterness or anger. If you bite into the seed of bitterness, it will never leave you. But if you believe, even if that belief is the size of a grain, you will survive," Stone said. "So now I live for joy. I live for purpose."

Last year, in an interview with Vogue magazine, the actress spoke about her stroke and admitted that at first doctors did not see the need for emergency medical care and almost sent her home without treatment, although she experienced unbearable headaches.

Shortly before her illness, in 2000, the actress and her then-husband, San Francisco Chronicle editor Phil Bronstein, adopted a son, Roan, who followed in his mother's footsteps and began an acting career. After the divorce, Sharon, who suffered nine miscarriages, adopted two more boys, Laird and Quinn.