Sharon Stone opened up about the devastating impact of her life changing stroke in 2001, which led to her losing $18 million.
As she spoke to The Hollywood Reporter, the 66-year-old actress spoke of her health crisis in 2001, during which she was given a one percent chance of survival, lost hearing in one ear and had 23 platinum coils surgically implanted in her brain.
She revealed that during the seven years it took for her to recover fully from the brain injury, people took advantage of her - leaving her with no money.
"I had zero money", she explained. "People took advantage of me over that time. I had $18 million saved because of all my success, but when I got back into my bank account, it was all gone."
"My refrigerator, my phone — everything was in other people’s names," she said, explaining exactly how she was left with such little money following her illness.
It likely didn't help that during the middle of her recovery, she was going through a divorce with her then-husband Phil Bronstein, which was finalized in 2004. She described their split as "the good part", calling it "the upside."
But according to the Basic Instinct star, she took a simple approach to recovering from the financial turmoil: "I decided to stay present and let go."
"I decided not to hang onto being sick or to any bitterness or anger," she said. "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 seed, you will survive. So, I live for joy now. I live for purpose."
This philosophy seems rigorously shaped by her relationship with Buddhism, as she identifies as a Tibetan Buddhist. She continued that a Buddhist monk had told her that during her health crisis, she had "been reincarnated into the same body."
"I had a death experience and then they brought me back. I bled into my brain for nine days, so my brain was shoved to the front of my face. It wasn’t positioned in my head where it was before", she said.
"And while that was happening, everything changed. 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."
Since her injury, Sharon has managed to continue her thriving career, with roles in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Lovelace, and The Disaster Artist.