For the first time ever, screen siren Sharon Stone speaks candidly about a decade of personal struggle, from the brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her to coping with miscarriages and her painful divorce and custody battle with Phil Bronstein.
From this, Stone has emerged a devoted mother and philanthropist. She tells AARP The Magazine, “I’ve made humanitarian causes and my children much more my priority than the Hollywood scene, being liked and getting movie parts.”
She looks amazing on the cover of the February/March issue of AARP The Magazine, and will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at AARP The Magazine’s 11th Annual Movies For Grownups Awards Gala on February 6th.
On Her Brain Hemorrhage
“I came out of the hospital with short- and long-term memory loss. My lower left leg was numb. I couldn’t hear out of my right ear. The side of my face was falling down. I thought, ‘I’ll never be pretty again. Who’s going to want to be around me?’”
On her Miscarriage and Choosing to Adopt
“The last time I lost the baby. I went into 36 hours of labor. While we were at the hospital, our adoption attorney called. I thought, ‘This is such a godsend. This is so right.”
“I always thought I would adopt. Even when I was young, I used to look up how to adopt.”
On Her Divorce from Phil Bronstein
“He just didn’t see me, talk to me, look at me.”
“His initial intention with me was probably corrupt. I was suckered. I’m embarrassed to say that.”
On Parenting
“I’m loving raising my kid. Quinn is in junior kindergarten, and he’s very exclamatory! Like a little FBI agent, he tells you everything that’s happening, so I call him Agent Quinn. ‘Mom! Toots pooped in the yard!’ ‘Thank you, Agent Quinn.’ And Laird is like a rocket. He came home with his violin from school yesterday and played it all night. He’s a big romancer: When you talk to him on the phone, he’s like, ‘I’m in love with you, Mommy.’ ”
“I’ve made humanitarian causes and my children much more my priority than the Hollywood scene, being liked and getting movie parts.”
On Her Future as an Actor
“If I’m not going to be a big movie star again, then guess what? That wasn’t my destiny.”
“People call and want me to play parts that I used to play. I’m like, ‘You have no idea what I have been through!’”
On Dealing with Hardship
“I thought I’d never be okay again. But you can get okay—though you have to have fortitude.”
“I would go to these [philanthropic] events where I had to get on stage. I would be in the wings, with people looking at me, my head on the floor, praying: ‘God, please help me. I know I have to go out there and raise money. But I’ve lost my child, I’ve lost my health, I’ve lost everything’ I was just broken.”
On Seeking a Relationship
“I’m not just going to be with a guy so there’s a guy in my life.”
On Focusing On Philanthropy and Charity Work
“I went to refugee camps where there’s no food, no water, nothing. I saw 4-year-olds with babies on their backs, and no parents. You take those kids home in your heart.”
“I understand what it’s like to go to hospitals and there’s no medicine, and the best thing you have to give the patients is compassion.”