Sharon Stone says people 'took advantage' of her after stroke and lost millions in savings

Sharon Stone has described how people "took advantage" of her financially while she was recovering from a near-fatal stroke.

The Basic Instinct star suffered a stroke in 2001 that led to a nine-day brain bleed, which forced her to step away from Hollywood for seven years while she recovered.

"People took advantage of me over that time," the US actress told The Hollywood Reporter.

"I had $18m (£14m) saved because of all my success, but when I got back into my bank account, it was all gone.

"My refrigerator, my phone - everything was in other people's names.

"I had zero money."

The 66-year-old actress said instead of feeling bitter about her experience, she chooses to focus on the positive.

"I decided to stay present and let go. I decided not to hang on to being sick or to any bitterness or anger," she said.

"If you bite into the seed of bitterness, it never leaves you. But if you hold faith, even if that faith is the size of a mustard seed, you will survive. So, I live for joy now. I live for purpose."

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'A lot of people thought I was going to die'

Stone said the stroke changed the way her brain worked.

"A Buddhist monk told me that I had been reincarnated into my same body. I had a death experience and then they brought me back," she said.

"I bled into my brain for nine days, so my brain was shoved to the front of my face. It wasn't positioned in my head where it was before.

"And while that was happening, everything changed. My sense of smell, my sight, my touch. I couldn't read for a couple of years. Things were stretched and I was seeing colour patterns.

"A lot of people thought I was going to die."

Doctors 'decided I was faking it'

Stone previously said doctors thought she was "faking" what turned out to be a brain haemorrhage that resulted from a ruptured vertebral artery.

She told Vogue last year: "They missed it with the first angiogram and decided that I was faking it.

"My best friend talked them into giving me a second one and they discovered that I had been haemorrhaging into my brain, my whole subarachnoid pool, and that my vertebral artery was ruptured. I would have died if they had sent me home."

The actress said she takes medication daily to address the stuttering and severe brain issues.

Stone did not share details of her brain bleed for several years after it occurred because she was worried about public reaction.

She is now a board member of the Barrow Neurological Foundation in the US, which treats "devastating brain and spine conditions".