Sharon Stone reveals why she felt relieved after her mom's death
The 'Basic Instinct' actress says there are many "complicated reasons" why people can have positive feelings about someone dying.
Actress Sharon Stone is opening up about the death of her mother and why she felt relieved after her passing.
Her mother, Dorothy, died in July 2025 at the age of 91.
"It's okay for me to feel free from my mom, free from her trauma, now that she's gone."
Stone explains that her mother grew up with a lot of trauma, which affected their relationship.
“My mom behaved often as if she didn’t like me at all. She had a very, very awful childhood, and was removed from her home when she was 9, because she was so violently abused," she told Anderson Cooper on his 'All There Is' podcast.
"And was given to another family to be their housekeeper, laundress, shopper, cook, everything at 9."
Stone says her mother was terrified to die because she was afraid that her parents would be there.
"I had to lie to her and tell her that her father was in jail and her mother was in a mental hospital, and they weren’t going to be there."
However, Stone also realised that she was the one who had to let her go.
"I finally realised, I have to let go. I need to release my mother. I need to stop walking in the room. I need to go upstairs and ignore my mother so she will die. I need to detach and release, and she’s only going to die if I let go."
Stone also reveals the words she desperately wanted to hear from her mother in her final days, but did not come.
"I wanted her to say, 'I'm proud of you. I love you. I'm sorry. You're important to me.' I had to make peace with the fact that my mom was not going to do that."
Stone says she felt relieved after Dorothy died, adding that grief can sometimes be complicated.
"People often think that's a bad thing. That you're not allowed to have positive feelings from death or dying, but, in fact, there can be a lot of positive feelings, particularly when you took care of someone who's dying over a long period of time," she said.
"The caregiver can just be worn to pieces, and the relief a caregiver can feel when that is over is enormous.
She says that, culturally, we don't have much allowance for mixed feelings.
"We're all supposed to have these pre-prescribed feelings where everyone feels terrific when you feel miserable. It's okay to have every feeling you might have, and it's okay to feel relieved by that pressure leaving."
Despite their complicated relationship, Stone maintained a relationship with her mother and allowed her to be part of her children's lives.
The 68-year-old has three sons: Roan, Laird and Quinn. She describes her mother's father as an abusive "creature".
"He was not a grandfather; he was a creature that we tried to avoid at all costs."
Many social media users related to Stone's thoughts on grief and why it is a different experience for everyone.
"It's so important to spotlight this kind of grief, too, and not sanitise the memory of the deceased to the point where they become a saint and all their victims are gaslit or dismissed. Brava, Sharon," one Instagram user said.
Another user added: "[It's] awesome that she shares this stuff that people usually are ashamed to tell!"
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Image credit: Instagram/@sharonstone