Sharon Stone Opens Up About How Her Mastectomy Decision Led to Marriage's End

Sharon Stone is opening up about a deeply personal turning point that changed the course of her personal life.

During a June 1 appearance on the Person Who Believe in Me podcast, the Euphoria star discussed her breast cancer diagnosis in the early 2000s and how her choice to undergo a bilateral mastectomy ultimately caused her marriage to fall apart.

Stone described the severity of her condition at the time. "I had had breast tumors, and one of them was bigger than the size of my entire left breast," she explained. A physician who visited her home delivered the recommendation directly: "The doctor had come out to my house and said, 'Look, we think you should have a bilateral mastectomy. This is really bad.'"

Without hesitation, Stone committed to the procedure. Her husband's reaction, however, was starkly different.

"I am deciding that I will have a bilateral because I'm not f–king around," Stone recounted. "My husband said, 'This is ridiculous,' and got up and left the room. … He was furious."

The tension escalated during a conversation with her physician. "The doctor said to him, 'If I had more patients like her, we'd have more women alive today. You need to sit down.' I said, 'I make the decisions, not you.' That was the end of the marriage. That was it. He was done with me then, it was over," Stone shared.

Her husband's disapproval stemmed from his view of her autonomy. "He thought I was making too many decisions myself," Stone claimed, adding that he considered her choice "foolish" and "ridiculous."

To manage the procedure privately given her high profile, Stone arranged for special accommodations at the hospital. "I went to the hospital and I told them, 'We need to work this out.' I come in at night 'cause, obviously, the fame was too big a deal. They brought me in at night, they closed everybody's rooms [and] they brought me in."

During surgery, her doctors removed the entirety of her left breast tissue and approximately half of her right side. Upon awakening, she found herself surrounded by medical staff. "By the time I came to, there were 10 [or] 12 people around my bed. I open my eyes and looked up and said, 'What is going on?'" she recalled. The news was the one she'd hoped for: "They went, 'You don't have cancer,' and I said, 'I know.'"

Stone did not identify which of her former husbands opposed her decision. She was married to Michael Greenburg from 1984 to 1990, and later to Phil Bronstein from 1998 to 2004.