Sharon Stone has shared her mother’s final words before her death while reflecting on their troubled relationship.
The Basic Instinct actor, 67, who announced in July that her “hilarious and complex” mother Dorothy Marie Stone had died aged 91, revealed in a new interview that her mother often “said terrible things” to her, which only intensified during the final days of her mother’s life.
Stone, who said her mother “wasn’t of a sunny disposition,” recounted one of their final conversations in a new interview with The Guardian.
“When the last thing your mother says to you before she dies is, ‘You talk too much, you make me want to commit suicide,’ and the whole room laughs, you think, ‘That’s a hard one to go out on, Mom!’”
Stone, who said her mother also aimed graphic comments at her due to her “delirium”, concluded: “But that’s how she was. This lack of ability to find tenderness and peace within herself.”
When Stone made news of her mother’s death public, she announced in July: “My hilarious, complex mother died. A product of the last depression, let’s NOT do this again. Let’s protect and care. She passed away two months ago. I’ve just processed it now.”
Stone said she waited to reveal the news to the world as she “always gets mad feelings first when people die”. Elaborating, the Casino actor said these feelings consist of “a little bit of anger and a little bit of ‘I didn’t f***ing need you anyway’, you know!”
Elsewhere in the interview, Stone revealed that she had spent much of her life thinking her mother hated her, but it was only later, when they became closer, that she understood how troubled her mother’s life had been.
In her 2021 memoir, The Beauty of Living Twice, Stone revealed that Dorothy and her sisters had been abused by their father, causing Dorothy to be removed from the family home aged nine. Stone wrote that he had also sexually abused her and her sister Kelly as children.
Stone said of her mother’s final days: “She was desperately afraid that when she died her mother and father would be there. She didn’t want to die, because she didn’t want to see them, because they were so awful. So I convinced her that I had put them in jail and they were not going to be there. She was in such hell.”
She added: “Nobody comes through this life intact. So why do we pretend that one does?”
Stone revealed that the years of abuse had impacted her mother and her mother’s sisters mental health, saying: “They were all treated for mental health problems. There were five of them and only my mom lived past 50. And they had a couple of other sisters who died in their early childhood.”
The national domestic abuse helpline offers support for women on 0808 2000 247, or you can visit the Refuge website. There is a dedicated men’s advice line on 0808 8010 327. Those in the US can call the domestic violence hotline on 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org