Sharon Stone Says She Was Treated in a 'Brutally Unkind Way' After Dangerous Stroke
After the stroke that derailed her acting career, movie star Sharon Stone is reflecting on what could’ve been — and her similarities to another ’90s icon.
“I was like the hottest movie star, you know?” the Oscar nominee for Casino, 61, told Variety about life before her 2001 stroke. “It was like Miss Princess Diana and I were so famous — and she died and I had a stroke. And we were forgotten.”
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In September 2001, Stone was hospitalized for a stroke. She took a two-year break from acting afterward, but told Variety it took her about seven years to fully recover.
“People treated me in a way that was brutally unkind,” Stone said. “From other women in my own business to the female judge who handled my custody case, I don’t think anyone grasps how dangerous a stroke is for women and what it takes to recover.”
Stone also said Bernard Arnault, the head of luxury good company LVMH and now second-richest man in the world, “rescued” her with a contract to model for Christian Dior.
“I had to remortgage my house,” Stone explained. “I lost everything I had. I lost my place in the business.”
Now an advocate for women’s brain diseases, Stone — who will star alongside Sarah Paulson and Cynthia Nixon in Netflix’s series Ratched — said women need to look out for warning signs.
“if you have a really bad headache, you need to go to the hospital,” she said. “I didn’t get to the hospital until day three or four of my stroke. Most people die. I had a 1% chance of living by the time I got surgery — and they wouldn’t know for a month if I would live.”
