Sharon Stone says she lost custody of her son after Basic Instinct movie

The actor says her role in the ‘90s erotic thriller was to blame for a custody ruling over her son Roan during her divorce, revealing the ‘horrible’ remarks the judge made to the eight-year-old.

Actor Sharon Stone and son, Roan Joseph Bronstein attend The 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards, 2018. Picture: WireImage

American actor Sharon Stone says that she lost custody of her son in part because of her role in Basic Instinct.

On a new episode of the Table for Two podcast, Stone, 64, told host Bruce Brozzi that after her divorce from journalist Phil Bronstein was filed in 2004, a judge ruled that he would have custody of their then eight-year-old son, Roan. The two adopted Roan in 200.

Stone says that it was her breakout role in Paul Verhoeven’s 1992 erotic thriller, and the controversy ignited by her infamous leg-crossing scene, that was partly to blame.

Sharon Stone and son Roan Bronstein. Picture: FilmMagic

“I lost custody of my child, Stone said. “When the judge asked my child — my tiny little boy, ‘Do you know your mother makes sex movies?’ Like, this kind of abuse by the system — that I was considered what kind of parent I was, because I made that movie.”

“People are walking around with no clothes on at all on regular TV now and you saw maybe like a 16th of a second of possible nudity of me — and I lost custody of my child,” Stone added. “Are you kidding?”

Sharon Stone portrays Catherine Tramell in a scene from Basic Instinct. Picture: AP Photos

Stone said that the judges decision “literally broke my heart,” and that she checked into the Mayo Clinic with extra heartbeats in the upper and lower chambers.

The actor says she wanted to “crawl into a hole” at the 1993 Golden Globes, when the audience laughed after her name was called as a nominee for best drama actor for Basic Instinct.

“It was horrible. I was so humiliated,” Stone said. “Does anyone have any idea how hard it was to play that part? How gut-wrenching? How frightening? To try and carry this complex movie that was breaking all boundaries and everyone was protesting against, and the pressure,” she said.

Sharon Stone during the 74th annual Cannes Film Festival in 2021 in Cannes. Picture: Getty

In her 2022 memoir, The Beauty of Living Twice, Stone wrote that she was tricked into shooting the scene in Basic Instinct without undergarments, and didn’t know that her private parts would be exposed in the film until it was screened for the first time with a room full of agents and lawyers.

“That was how I saw my vagina-shot for the first time, long after I’d been told, ‘We can’t see anything — I just need you to remove your panties, as the white is reflecting the light, so we know you have panties on,” she wrote.

“Now, here is the issue. It didn’t matter anymore. It was me and my parts up there. I had decisions to make.”

Stone said that after the screening, she went to the projection booth and slapped director Verhoeven across the face.