Sharon Stone on abusive grandfather: 'Glee and relief' at his death
Synopsis
Sharon Stone's account of checking her abuser's pulse at his funeral — and feeling only relief — is one of the most viscerally honest disclosures about childhood sexual abuse by a major Hollywood figure in recent memory. Her willingness to name the emotion as 'glee' challenges the sanitised grief narratives that typically surround death, and signals a deliberate, years-long reckoning with a trauma she first addressed in print.
Key Takeaways
Sharon Stone , 68 , revealed on the All There Is with Anderson Cooper podcast that she felt 'glee and relief' when her sexually abusive maternal grandfather died in 2001 .
Stone was 14 and her sister Kelly was 11 at the time of his death.
She described physically checking that he was dead at the open-coffin funeral, saying 'It's over' .
Stone first wrote about the experience in her memoir The Beauty of Living Twice .
She also spoke about the death of her mother Dorothy in July 2025 during the same interview.
Hollywood actress Sharon Stone has broken her silence on one of the most painful chapters of her life, revealing that she and her sister felt 'glee and relief' when their sexually abusive maternal grandfather died in 2001. The 68-year-old actress made the disclosure during an appearance on the All There Is with Anderson Cooper podcast, offering a rare and emotionally raw account of childhood trauma and its aftermath.
What Sharon Stone Said
Stone described her grandfather not as a family figure but as someone she and her sister Kelly actively tried to avoid. 'He was an abuser who abused my mom and did everything he could possibly do to get near us to be abusive of us,' she said. 'And he was not a grandfather, he was a creature that we tried to avoid at all costs.'
Stone was 14 years old when her grandfather passed away, while her sister Kelly was 11. She recalled that the funeral atmosphere carried none of the usual solemnity. Instead of grief, the two sisters approached the open coffin together — with Kelly reportedly asking Sharon to confirm he was actually dead.
The Coffin Moment She Will Never Forget
Stone recounted the scene with unflinching clarity: 'I reached in and shoved him in the shoulder, and he was stiff and didn't move, and I went, Yeah. And I think I said, It's over. And I think we still backed off.'
Reflecting on her emotional state at that moment, she said: 'It will be a picture in my mind forever of that weird sense of emptiness, good emptiness. It's over.' The actress appeared visibly emotional during the podcast conversation, struggling at points to maintain composure as she revisited the memory.
Previously Written About in Her Memoir
Stone had first touched on these experiences in her memoir The Beauty of Living Twice, in which she wrote about the dissonance of experiencing death as a child through the lens of relief rather than grief. Podcast host Anderson Cooper read aloud from the book during the episode: '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.'
The memoir, published earlier, laid groundwork for this more candid verbal account — suggesting Stone has been carefully and deliberately processing this trauma over years rather than suppressing it.
Final Goodbye to Her Mother
Elsewhere in the same interview, Stone spoke about saying a final farewell to her mother Dorothy, who passed away in July 2025. The dual losses — one met with relief, the other with grief — underscore the complexity of Stone's family history and the emotional weight she has carried across decades.
As Stone continues to speak openly about abuse, loss, and survival, her candour adds to a growing cultural conversation around childhood trauma, the non-linear nature of grief, and the long shadow cast by family violence.
Point of View
Even toward those who caused harm. Her choice to use the word 'glee' publicly, after first testing it in memoir form, suggests a deliberate reclamation of her own emotional truth. What mainstream coverage may underplay is that Stone is also implicitly naming the failure of adult family structures to protect her and her sister — her grandfather 'abused my mom' too, she says, pointing to a generational pattern that went unchecked. The broader resonance lies in how rarely survivors of childhood sexual abuse are permitted, culturally, to feel anything other than complicated sorrow at an abuser's death.
NationPress
27 Jun 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
What did Sharon Stone reveal about her grandfather on the Anderson Cooper podcast?
Sharon Stone revealed that she and her sister Kelly felt 'glee and relief' when their sexually abusive maternal grandfather died in 2001. She described him as an abuser who targeted her, her sister, and their mother, and said the family tried to avoid him at all costs.
How old was Sharon Stone when her grandfather died?
Sharon Stone was 14 years old when her grandfather died in 2001. Her sister Kelly was 11 at the time. Stone recalled that neither of them experienced conventional grief at his funeral.
Has Sharon Stone spoken about this before?
Yes. Stone first addressed her mixed emotions around her grandfather's death in her memoir The Beauty of Living Twice. The Anderson Cooper podcast appearance marks a more detailed and emotionally direct verbal account of the experience.
What happened at the funeral that Stone described?
Stone recounted approaching the open coffin with her sister, who asked her to confirm he was dead. Stone said she reached in and pushed his shoulder, found him stiff, and told her sister 'It's over.' She described the feeling as a 'good emptiness.'
Who else did Sharon Stone discuss in the interview?
Stone also spoke about the death of her mother Dorothy, who passed away in July 2025. The interview covered both losses, highlighting the contrasting emotions each death brought — relief in one case, grief in the other.
