Women Have A Message For Critics Who Say Sharon Stone's Mastectomy Divorce Story Is 'Fake'

Sharon Stone once faced a major health scare, which ultimately brought the end of her marriage. In the "Basic Instinct" star's 2021 memoir "The Beauty of Living Twice," she wrote that she had undergone a bilateral mastectomy after doctors discovered large benign tumors in the area. During a June 2024 appearance on the "Do Good With David Begnaud" podcast, Stone recalled how her now-ex-husband had been "furious" when she had informed him that she intended to undergo the surgery. "He thought I was ridiculous," she said of her then-husband's reaction to her decision. "He thought I was foolish. He thought I was making too many decisions myself." 

Sharon Stone gets emotional talking about the moment her marriage ended after her husband got FURIOUS over her decision to have a double mastectomy and breast removal due to a breast tumor instead of focusing on her health 😳💔👀

"He was furious. And the doctor said to him, 'If... pic.twitter.com/oMXttiYfkP

— Killa 🌺 (@KillaKreww) June 6, 2026

Instead of letting her then-husband influence her health, the celebrity, who has also dealt with aphasia, firmly told him, "I make the decisions. Not you.'" In those moments, the actor and her former spouse both knew that their relationship was over. Although Stone didn't name-drop her ex, she did say he was a journalist. Her second husband, Phil Bronstein, whom she was married to from 1998 to 2004, worked in the news. After hearing Stone's story, some people on X, formerly Twitter, accused her of lying. 

However, many women quickly came to Stone's defense and pointed out that her experiences were not unlike those of the average woman whose partner prioritized her looks over her health. One commentator wrote that the "Nobody" actor's experiences reflected the struggles of women whose partner did not want to care for them when they were dealing with health issues. Another person encouraged people to look into statistics showing how many men cheated or left their wives when they had health issues. Research does indeed back Stone and many other women's experiences.

Studies have shown that getting a mastectomy can have a significant impact on a woman's romantic relationships. A 2013 study in Psycho-oncology found that 33% of its 60 female participants had reported that a mastectomy had negatively impacted their relationship. Around 30% of participants reported feeling that they were less attractive post-surgery in their own eyes as well as their partner's. 71% of women also experienced a decreased satisfaction in their sex lives, and 77% reported reduced sexual pleasure. 71% of women also reported a decline in sexual activity. According to a leading doctor, women can expect to experience plenty of other things after having a mastectomy. 

Research over time has also indicated that men are more likely to leave women when they are dealing with illness rather than the other way around. A 2009 study in Cancer, analyzing 515 married people with a brain tumor or multiple sclerosis, found that 21% of marriages ended when it was the wife who had received the diagnosis. In contrast, only 3% of marriages saw their end when the husband was ill. 

With that number, it appears that men were around seven times more likely to leave women when they were dealing with a serious illness. A 2025 study in the Journal of Marriage and Family similarly found that marriages of couples between the ages of 50 and 64 were more likely to end when the woman got sick rather than the man. Given all this, it appears that Sharon Stone has shone a light on a complex issue while discussing how she is a celebrity who experienced a major health scare.