Sharon Stone Says Ex-Husband Signed Her Up for Brain Surgery Without Consent After Stroke

Sharon Stone is speaking publicly about a frightening chapter of her life. During a recent appearance on the Mayim Bialik’s Breakdown podcast, the 68-year-old actress described waking up on a gurney to discover she was being taken for exploratory brain surgery — a procedure she says her then-husband, Phil Bronstein, had arranged without her knowledge or consent.

Waking Up on the Way to Surgery

The episode took place in 2001, after Stone was placed in a neurological intensive care unit following a subarachnoid hemorrhage and stroke that left her drifting in and out of consciousness.

“First I woke up, and I was being wheeled to exploratory brain surgery,” she said. “He had signed me up for exploratory brain surgery without my knowledge or consent. And I woke up again because the gurney hit something on the floor.”

Stone recalled that the doctor continued wheeling her toward the operating room even though she had not agreed to the procedure. According to her account, he told her, “Don’t worry. It’s all been taken care of.”

A Heated Confrontation in the Hospital

Stone described standing up on the gurney in her open hospital gown, which immediately drew a crowd of nurses and orderlies. She said a doctor then appeared with a fax in his hand, shouting, “You can’t do that. I’m on the phone with People magazine.”

She continued to argue that she had never signed off on the surgery. The doctor, she said, insisted otherwise: “Yes, you did. I said you did. And I’m on the phone with People magazine” — implying he had told the magazine she was in surgery.

After the doctor claimed he had the right to speak with the magazine because he was her physician, Stone said she fired him.

“He said, ‘You can’t do that,’ and this head nurse who saved my life, this like 50-year-old head nurse, beautiful blonde woman, came out, and she said, ‘Well, she just did, sir. She just did,'” Stone recalled. “And she said, ‘Take her back to her room.’ And I wouldn’t be alive today if it wasn’t for her.”

Allegations About Delayed Care

During the same interview, Stone alleged that Bronstein initially put off taking her to the hospital and then repeatedly told doctors “that I was faking it.”

Reflecting on Recovery and Resilience

Stone has discussed her stroke many times over the years. In a 2014 essay for The Hollywood Reporter, she wrote in detail about her recovery.

“I had a massive brain hemorrhage. So I know what the alternative to growing older is,” she wrote. “I bled in my brain for nine days. I spent two years learning to walk and talk again. I came home from that stroke stuttering, couldn’t read for two years. I was in an ICU for nine days and the survival rate for what I went through is very low. I don’t need someone to make me feel bad about growing older. I’ll tell you what makes you feel bad: when you think you might not.”

Divorce and Custody Dispute

Bronstein and Stone separated in July 2003, and their divorce was finalized in early 2004. The split was followed by a custody dispute over their son, Roan. In 2008, a San Francisco court denied Stone’s attempt to change the custody arrangement, which listed Bronstein’s San Francisco home as Roan’s primary residence, with Stone receiving visitation rights.

Stone has since said she believes her role in Basic Instinct led to some prejudice against her in that case.

“I had had a brain hemorrhage and was an actress who had made sexy movies,” she told AARP in January 2012. “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.”