Sharon Stone has revealed that her ex-husband, Phil Bronstein, was 'furious' when she chose to undergo a life-saving double mastectomy, leading to the end of their marriage. The 68-year-old actress recalled the incident on the podcast The Person Who Believed in Me, explaining that she had been diagnosed with benign tumours in the early 2000s, one of which was 'bigger than the size of [her] entire left breast'.
Despite her doctor's recommendation for a bilateral mastectomy, Stone insisted she did not have cancer but decided to have the operation anyway, saying: 'I am deciding that I will have a bilateral because I'm not f***ing around.' Her then-husband, however, 'got up and left the room', calling her decision 'ridiculous'. When asked if he was angry about the potential cancer, Stone confirmed he was upset about the removal of her breasts.
The doctor reportedly told Bronstein: 'If I had more patients like her, we'd have more women alive today. You need to sit down.' Stone added that she told him: 'I make the decisions, not you.' She stated that the marriage was 'over in the room' after that confrontation.
In the end, Stone did not undergo a double mastectomy as the tumours were benign, but she had surgery to remove them. During reconstruction, the surgeon gave her larger implants without her consent, which she later wrote about in her memoir The Beauty of Living Twice.
Stone and Bronstein married in 1998 and divorced in 2004. They adopted a son, Roan, in 2000. After the divorce, Bronstein was granted primary custody. Stone later adopted two more sons and became a single mother, saying in 2018 that she no longer hoped for a partner.
