Sharon Stone Lost Custody Of Her Child For Making Basic Instinct
In a recent podcast interview, Sharon Stone claims that her role in Basic Instinct caused a judge to remove custody of her adopted son because she "makes sex movies."
While Sharon Stone may have a lot of fans, including new ones from her viral Saturday Night Live cameo and famous friends (including Robert De Niro) in her corner, her role in the erotic thriller Basic Instinct led to the loss of her parental rights for her adopted son, Roan. During a recent appearance on iHeartRadio’s Table for Two podcast, the never-aging actress revealed that a judge twisted her short nude scene in the 1992 film against her and asked her son if he was aware that his mom made “sex movies.” In the end, Stone says that the seconds-long clip put into the final project without her knowledge or consent was why she “lost custody of my child.”
Referring to the heartbreaking memory as “abuse by the system,” Sharon Stone said it was wildly unfair for her parenting style to be judged on one project she was attached to. In turn, the court’s ruling only gave the Ratched actress visitation rights, with her ex-husband Phil Bronstein gaining primary custody. The messy case would lead Stone to the edge of a mental and emotional breakdown, with the actress also experiencing physical health challenges.
As many know, if you’re plagued by heavy stress and anxiety problems, your body typically manifests them physically, which was beyond true for Sharon Stone, who was hospitalized at the Mayo Clinic for cardiac problems the same year the custody ruling was passed. In her mind, Stone says that losing her primary custody rights “literally broke my heart,” which she believes caused her heart issues. And, with hindsight being 20/20, Stone is more than a little angry about how the court case shook out all those years ago as now, three decades in the future, “people are walking around with no clothes on at all on regular TV,” the actress said before adding that because audiences only saw “maybe like a sixteenth of a second of possible nudity of me … I lost custody of my child.”
Sadly, the hits that Sharon Stone took because of her role in the Paul Verhoeven film just kept on coming as, although her performance was celebrated at the awards circuit, earning her a nod at the 1993 Golden Globe Awards, she was jeered and laughed at by peers when her name was read in the category. “It was horrible. I was so humiliated,” the actress, who would later earn an Oscar nom for her work on Martin Scorcese’s Casino, said, adding that no one really understood how “hard” and “gut-wrenching” it was to take on her role in Basic Instinct.
For those who may not know, Basic Instinct stars Sharon Stone as Catherine Tramell, a crime author who finds herself in the middle of one of her stories after she’s connected to the murder of a rock star. Stepping in to take over the case, homicide detective Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) finds that he’s bit off more than he can chew when his primary suspect seduces him, blurring his vision of who’s to blame for the musician’s death. Things get even murkier for the detective when more layers are unveiled that could put his psychologist and lover, Beth Garner (Jeanne Tripplehorn), at the scene of the crime.
Of course, while Sharon Stone was at the center of controversy, Ant-Man star Michael Douglas didn’t hear a peep of the same criticism that the actress faced. Now, with erotic thrillers like the Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas-led Deep Water part of the norm, it’s no wonder Stone is still ruminating on this miscarriage of justice all these years later. With Hollywood flipping upside down with court cases surrounding the “me too” movement, we think it’s high time someone steps forward to apologize to Sharon Stone.
