Sharon Stone Says She Felt an 'Emptiness' When Her Abusive Grandfather Died: 'He Was a Creature That We Tried to Avoid'

Rebecca AizinFri, June 26, 2026 at 7:02 PM UTC

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Sharon Stone attends the We Do It Together's 10th Anniversary Gala at Mr. Brainwash Art Museum on November 18, 2025Credit: Paul Archuleta/Getty -

Sharon Stone opened up in an interview with Anderson Cooper about feeling relief and "good" emptiness when her abusive grandfather died

The actress said her grandfather was a "creature that we tried to avoid at all costs"

Stone previously shared in her 2021 memoir that her grandfather abused her mom and sexually abused her and her sister

Sharon Stone is opening up about her complicated relationship with her abusive grandfather.

The actress, 68, recently joined the All There Is with Anderson Cooperpodcast, where she elaborated on the "glee and relief and emptiness" she wrote she felt when her maternal grandfather died in her 2021 memoir The Beauty of Living Twice.

"He was an abuser who abused my mom and did everything he could possibly do to get near us to be abusive of us," Stone told Cooper, 59. "And he was not a grandfather, he was a creature that we tried to avoid at all costs."

Actress Sharon Stone and Kelly Stone attend Lupus LA's Orange Ball: Rocket to a Cure at the California Science Center on April 22, 2017 in Los AngelesCredit: Tiffany Rose/Getty

Cooper quoted Stone's memoir to her, reading from the section describing the sexual abuse she said she and her sister Kelly experienced at his hands. "It's a very weird thing when you're a kid and the first experience you have of death is glee and relief and emptiness," he quoted.

Stone elaborated that at the time of her grandfather's death, she was 14 and her sister was 11. While she noted that at a funeral there is usually a "gentle caring" and a "hand-holding," there was "none of that" at his service.

She recalled going up to her grandfather's coffin as her sister peered over her shoulder and asked her, "Are we sure he's dead?" and implored her to "check."

"I reached in and shoved him in the shoulder, and he was stiff and didn't move, and I went, 'Yeah,' " Stone said. "And I think I said, 'It's over.' And I think we still backed off."

The Casino actress described feeling a sense of relief in that moment and remembering it forever.

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"It will be a picture in my mind forever of that weird sense of emptiness — good emptiness. It's over," she said.

Stone previously opened up about making the decision to come forward with details about her and her sister's sexual abuse in a 2021 interview with The New York Times, telling the outlet that she and Kelly "made this decision together."

Sharon Stone and Dorothy Stone speak at the charity donation to 'Drop in the Bucket' and unveiling of her new Damiani 'Maji' Jewelry Collection at the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons Hotel on November 30, 2010Credit: Jean Baptiste Lacroix/WireImage

"We spoke to my mother and at first she was very stoic and wrote me a letter about how disconcerting all this information was," she said at the time. "The whole pious, horrified, I-don't-really-want-to-talk-about-it-directly kind of thing."

"Then my sister got loaded when my mom was staying with her and really went for it with my mom," Stone continued. "And my mom had a major breakthrough."

Stone also opened up about her relationship with her mom, Dorothy, who died in July 2025, while speaking to Cooper. The actress shared their emotional last moments, saying she had to "let go" so her mom could "die in peace."

"I finally realized, I have to let go. I need to stop walking in the room. I need to go upstairs and ignore my mother so she will die,” the actress admitted. “I need to detach and release, and she's only going to die if I let go."

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”