Sharon Stone was in the third season of Euphoria that just ended on HBO. This is why we’ve seen more interviews with her lately, including a Variety Actors on Actors episode Keke Palmer — an inspired pairing! (Sidenote: in that conversation, Sharon called AI “A cover band. … It’s never going to be the Rolling Stones; it’s always going to be somebody singing the Rolling Stones.” Nailed it!) But we’re actually here to talk about another interview, an hour-long appearance Sharon made on David Begnaud’s The Person Who Believed In Me podcast. The person who believed in Sharon was her father, who she says was tough on her, but always in the name of her being her best self. More specifically, he always called her out when she was diminishing herself to fit in. Obviously the message stuck, because later in the podcast Sharon talks about the moment she knew her relationship with second husband Phil Bronstein was over: when he got mad at her for deciding, on her own, to have a medically-advised double mastectomy to remove large tumors in her breasts.
“One of [the tumors] was bigger than the size of my entire left breast,” Sharon recalled. “And the doctor had come out to my house and said, ‘Look, we think you should have a bilateral mastectomy. This is really bad. And we usually, when they’re all the way up into here, we know before we go in that they’re cancer.”
While Sharon remembered feeling certain that her tumors were not cancerous, she agreed to undergo a double mastectomy. “I am deciding that I will have a bilateral because I’m not f–king around,” she recalled saying at the time.
Sharon went on to reveal that her husband at the time was “furious” at her for deciding to undergo the surgery.
Sharon didn’t name her ex, but she was married to film director and producer Michael Greenburg between 1984 and 1990 (separated in 1987), and then journalist Phil Bronstein between 1998 and 2004.
“My husband said, ‘This is ridiculous!’ And got up and left the room,” Sharon recalled.
When host David asked which part was ridiculous, Sharon said, “That I would have a bilateral. He was furious.”
David questioned, “Oh, not that the cancer, if it was true, might kill you?” Sharon replied, “No, no.”
Once again, David clarified, “He was mad about the breasts being removed,” to which Sharon said, “Yeah. And so the doctor said to him, ‘If I had more patients like her, we’d have more women alive today. You need to sit down.’ And I said, ‘I make the decisions, not you.’”
Sharon said that her husband’s reaction ultimately marked a shift in their relationship. “That was the end of the marriage. That was it. He was done with me then. It was over,” she said.
Sharon continued, “It was just over in the room. You could just tell. It was over. It was just over. He thought I was ridiculous. He thought it was foolish. He thought I was making too many decisions myself.”
Sharon ultimately didn’t end up undergoing the bilateral mastectomy because her tumors were benign.
Wait, they found these tumors in the early 2000s? So this happened on top of the near-fatal stroke she had in 2001?? My gosh, what she went through. Oh, and let’s not forget that Phil Bronstein was just as big a d–k during that medical emergency as well, getting into nasty divorce proceedings while she was in recovery from a stroke she had a 1% chance of surviving. The BuzzFeed article goes on to include examples of people responding online to Sharon’s story with their own cases of men being terrible under similar circumstances. They even referenced an oft-cited study on partner abandonment that says, “A married man is six times more likely to separate from or divorce his wife soon after a diagnosis of cancer or multiple sclerosis than a married woman in the same situation.” And somehow men have perpetuated the myth for centuries that they’re the strongest gender. As if.
My heartfelt admiration goes out to Sharon for knowing her worth, even when she was at her most vulnerable. And I’ll close out here by echoing Sharon and giving a nod to my own late father, who frequently would turn to me and my mother to apologize for the acts of his species gender.
Photos credit: Axel Groussett/Avalon, Ángel Díaz Briñas/Europa Press/Avalon, Stefano Costantino TTL/Avalon, IMAGO/Eventpress Berndt/Avalon, Getty Images, Look Press Agency/Avalon
She’s heroic. Like not in an abstract way, in a vivid compelling multidimensional way. Wow.
If you can, seek out her autobiography (I listened to it on Libby). It was very compelling and just shocked me how raw and open she was. Also. F the patriarchy and chose the bear.
Sounds like a lot of men have rightfully earned their “loneliness epidemic.”
Right??? 🤣
They’re not lonely enough.
This is so common that consultants and doctors advise women it could happen when giving them results.
How much of a total sh*thead do you have to be to leave your wife because YOU find it difficult to cope with her health issue?! Out goes those vows of in sickness and in health…guarantee those same men would be so offended if it were the other way around.
His response to Sharon’s decision to go for surgery makes it clear her husband just saw her breasts as playthings for him rather than a part of her body with a specific function outside of being sexual fun bags.
And when you’re pregnant….through each of my pregnancies, my doctor would ask, “How’s the Mr?” (emotionally, mentally) . Dr said increased risk of domestic violence during pregnancies.
If a woman left a man with testicular or colon cancer she would be shunned for life & excised from society. I bet this guy still played golf with his old buddies who’d been happy to hang with his celebrity wife.
Ugh. That study about high divorce rates and illness has been debunked and the study retracted. They were tracking marriages across time and mistakenly counted anyone who dropped out of the study as having divorced. When they went back and looked at the marital status of the dropouts, it turned out the divorce rate was 5% not 32%, in line with normal divorce rates.
Sadly, misclassifying dropouts is a frequent source of very bad research errors.
Link: https://westreich.substack.com/p/data-debunking-are-men-really-more
Her account of how Bronstein gaslit her while she was having a stroke was beyond infuriating; thinking he had the final word on her body just confirms what a POS this guy was/is.
As they were introduced via a professional matchmaker, I’d sure like a peek into his profile. 👀
And people wonder why women choose the bear.
I had a friend who divorced a few years after her MS diagnosis. She went on a strict vegan diet as one way of managing symptoms, and her husband alternated between being unsupportive and going so all-in with the food restrictions that he acted like they were for his health rather than hers. It was kind of the straw that broke the camel’s back in her case, but I think if not for that health crisis and his response to it, they might still be married.
I am single and thankfully don’t have to run my medical decisions by some dude, but it’s not entirely surprising Sharon went through that. I underwent a double mastectomy in February as part of my treatment for triple negative breast cancer. It was the best decision for me due to high recurrence rates for this type. I have my 2nd surgery next month. My surgeon (a man) keeps trying to tell me it will look more like a breast if I let him make nipples, as though the giant scars and need for implants haven’t already altered them forever. I know what he was trying to say, which is that they will be more attractive sexually if I do it. That is so frustrating to me, and frankly a dumb reason. No one else should have a say in what you choose for your body, not even your doctor. It’s a very traumatic decision, so I don’t blame Sharon for not going through with the surgery, but the idea of not doing so because her husband demanded it shows how some men only value women’s bodies.
As someone who went through something similar, sometimes the nip reconstruction isn’t for men, it’s to help the woman feel more like herself when it’s all done. It’s for her mental health. There are some incredible tattoo artist that can make life-like flat tattoos appear 3D, so surgery isn’t the only way to address it (tattoo can be done with or without nip reconstruction).
I definitely recommend doing whatever makes you feel best about yourself. I’m so sorry if the surgeon is being too pushy!
Fellow mastectomy and reconstruction haver here and there is data that suggests mental health improvement with the addition of nipples (whether prosthetic, reconstructed or tattooed). I was never pressured for any of the above by my PS, merely told my options and about the data. I plan to get the tattoos. I think a focal point on the breast will go a long way at completing the look for me (someone with a husband that supports my decision, whatever it may be). Also, wanting to be sexually attractive is a valid reason for wanting the look of a nipple. It’s not unusual or bad to want to be attractive.
This is a very small thing, but a Sharon Stone moment I think about often: I read an interview with her years ago and the reporter drove around LA with her. She was waiting to turn left, crossing traffic, behind another car that was slow to move and Sharon told the other driver “be bwave!” in a baby voice. Makes me laugh every time I’m in that situation.
I personaly have three Aunties(one Uncle recently died) but they have been caretakers to their ailing husbands for the last few years, the longest Aunt has been for 14 years. She does everything for him,he is sadly pretty much unable to do anything. The other one is virtually blind and the recently deceased was bed ridden for years. We always ‘joke’ that had our Uncles been in this position (especially knowing their affair ridden pasts) they would have left or remarried long ago.
My cousin gave birth to a baby the size of a soda can, that’s how she found out she had leukemia. Her husband couldn’t deal so she and the baby ended up with her parents. Men.
I will go to my grave saying that she is the most stunningly beautiful human I’ve ever scene in person.
Oh Sharon, so sorry you had to live through that.
Your ex-husband is a piece of 💩 and didn’t deserve you. Your health is far more important than that shallow, pathetic and odious little mankin.
My cousin’s husband left her when she was diagnosed with MS. He said he “didn’t sign up for this.” We were all like, “Dude, what did you think ‘in sickness and in health’ meant?”
Stone definitely cut out a malignant tumor by ending that marriage.
Most men want a caretaker. They don’t want to care for others. They want the same they had with mommy but just with the s.ex. Marriage is the only way when even a poor man can get a free maid.
More and more women decide not to marry and the manosphere is freaking out. Men are not lonely enough. Smash the patriarchy!
I like Sharon Stone. She has a good heart and good intentions. And I do believe she has a really high IQ, which people mocked and doubted in the past. A study in the 1950’s, I think, showed that male geniuses rose higher in the workplace because of their abilities, but women geniuses were still secretaries and housewives. So why in the world would people doubt that Sharon Stone is a very smart woman? Pure sexism.
I have a feeling this kind of thing happens a lot. I remember watching Ann Jillian’s movie when I was a kid where she talked about her surgery for breast cancer, and one of her biggest concerns was over her husband “not seeing her as a woman anymore” after her mastectomy. Even as young as I was, I remember feeling awful that was something she even had to worry about.
This makes me wish that Komodo dragon had kept going.
I appaud Sharon for making her own decisions re: her body and her health. The husband sounds like a jerk. I’ve had breast cancer twice. The first time was a Stage 4/metastatic triple negative diagnosis. I was in my late 20’s with a toddler. A radical mastectomy and clinical trial saved my life. I left my husband while I was still bald from the chemo because he was unable to handle my illness, couldn’t even talk about it, and he tried to pretend that everything was normal and that nothing was wrong. The second time that I was diagnosed I had an unrelated Stage 1 breast cancer on the other side (in my 40s). Early detection was key the 2nd time. The first time I was ignored by 5 different doctors because I was “too young”. I was told to go home and put ice on my very large tumor. I was told that the lump was because I was a new mother. On and on. Ladies, trust your gut. Make your own decisions. Don’t let anyone judge you for the decisions that you make for your body and your life.