LEARNING TO LIVE AGAIN
In 2001 Sharon’s life changed radically when she suffered a devastating brain haemorrhage. At the time she was on a high, having earned an Oscar nomination for her role in Martin Scorsese’s Casino (1995) and two Golden Globe nominations, for The Mighty (1998) and The Muse (1999).
But the stroke, which left her in a coma for nine days, “wiped out my whole life”. She spent two years learning to walk, talk and read again.
Her second marriage, to Phil Bronstein, didn’t survive. She married the newspaper editor in 1998 a decade after her first marriage, to TV producer Michael Greenburg, ended but Bronstein filed for divorce in 2003, citing irreconcilable differences.
Their marriage had been fraught with difficulty before the stroke, with Sharon enduring two miscarriages largely because of a lupusrelated disease. In 2000 they adopted a baby boy, ROAN, whom Sharon called “a godsend” – and she was heartbroken when she lost custody of him in the divorce.