SURVIVAL INSTINCTS
WHY THE STAR HAD TO GO BACK TO BASICS!
Why Sharon went back to basics
When you’re a global celebrity, there are certain things you can’t do without a fair bit of faff and planning.
And while it’s obvious the dating lives of celebrities might be a wee bit different to our own, spare a thought for Basic Instinct star Sharon Stone, who ran into a spot of bother trying her hand at online dating.
The stunning actress, who’s been single since divorcing newspaper executive Phil Bronstein in 2004, signed up for Bumble, an app-based dating service that allows users to swipe yes or no to other users’ profiles.
However, it seems no-one could fathom it was actually the real Sharon Stone, and the star was blocked from the app.
“I went on the Bumble dating site and they closed my account,” she posted to her social media.
“Some users reported that it couldn’t possibly be me! Hey
Bumble… don’t shut me out of the hive!”
At 61, Sharon has never looked, or felt, better. After a career of stupendous highs and devastating lows − most notably her 2001 stroke which left her “at the back of the line” of her previously booming career − she truly, genuinely doesn’t give a damn about anyone else’s opinions.
“People are incredibly unkind,” she tells. “[But] as I grew older, I gained the power of stardom. I thought I had the power of being a powerful woman in Hollywood, but at that time [the 1990s] there was no such thing.
“There were things in my contract – I would supposedly have the power to choose my co-star, which was never true; the power to choose my own films, which was absolutely not true because my career was short and sketchy. I had false power.
“I got to make a few movies, but mostly movies picked by men, written by men, sold by men… when I broke glass ceilings, they were the oldfashioned, eight-foot glass ceilings. When I was ill I wasn’t able to come back into the business, like a man. I was sent to the back of the line to scratch my way back.”
After her stroke, which she was only given a 1% chance of surviving, Sharon − who has three sons Roan (19), Laird (14) and Quinn (13) − was unable to work for two years, and when she eventually felt ready to return to Hollywood she found she was “forgotten”.
“From trying to keep custody of my son to just functioning to be able to work at all... I had to re-mortgage my house. I lost everything I had. I lost my place in the business.”
But come back she has, and despite the physical and personal upheavals of her 40s, Sharon looks back on that decade as her favourite.
“My 40s were so beautiful,” she says.
“I was a mum with three beautiful little boys, I was recovering from a massive brain injury, and I was in custody court constantly fighting for my eldest child.
“But there was something wonderful in that period of challenges. And even though no-one wanted to date me, it was a period of reconciliation and change, and understanding myself.”
Sharon discovered what real power meant – and it wasn’t making a billion-dollar movie, bagging a lead role or being ‘that Sharon’ from the 1990s, oozing sex appeal and sensationalism. Rather, she tells, it’s something far more subtle.
“The power of dignity,” she explains. “To maintain my home, my family, my finances, my health; to grow as a person who understands myself and my follies. I decided to use my fame for something valuable.”
Indeed, Sharon has thrown herself into charity work, as amfAR’s Global Campaign Chair as well as advocating for brain-ageing diseases, given her own experience.
“If you have a really bad headache you need to go to the hospital,” she says. “I didn’t get to the hospital until day three or four of my stroke… they didn’t know for a month if I would live.”
These days, she’s resolved to live life to the fullest – and yes, that does mean opening up her heart to the right man should he come along.
Which will be a bit easier now that Bumble has restored her profile.
Go get ‘em, Sharon!
‘I thought I had the power of being a powerful woman in Hollywood... I had false power’