The Scary Reason Why Sharon Stone Gave Up Cosmetic Surgery

Sharon Stone is done with cosmetic surgery. The 64-year-old actress opened up about her experiences with Botox and filler in a cover story for Vogue Arabiaincluding the scary reason she’ll never get these types of treatments again. (Read more: Jamie Lee Curtis Is Uninterested In the Term ‘Anti-Aging’)

Stone used to see cosmetic surgery as a “cute luxury,” she told the magazine. But after having a “massive stroke and a nine-day brain hemorrhage,” that changed. She had to get more than 300 shots of Botox and filler to make one side of her face lift up again after the stroke. Since then, she’s viewed aesthetic procedures like this as a “painful neurological need.”

ICYDK, a stroke occurs when blood supply to the brain is interrupted or reduced, preventing brain tissue from getting the oxygen and nutrients it needs, according to the Mayo Clinic. One symptom of a stroke is facial paralysis (aka facial droop), which is caused when nerves that control face muscles are damaged in the brain and typically only impacts half of the face.

Steering clear of Botox and fillers may have cost the actress certain relationships, but she’s unbothered by it, she explained in the recent interview, noting that a partner once suggested she have a procedure done. “I saw him one more time after that and then he wasn’t interested in seeing me anymore,” she said, adding “If you don’t see me for more than that, you’ll please find your way to the exit.”

At 64, Stone seems confident and comfortable exactly as she is. “I feel like this is the most exciting and creative period of my life,” she told Vogue Arabia. “I feel really, really happy. I’ve never been this joyful.”

That joy is palpable on the Basic Instinct The actress’s Instagram profile, where she shared a photo of herself wearing just a pair of bikini bottoms and a towel earlier this summer. “Gratefully imperfect on a perfect day,” she wrote in the caption.

“I posted it because I feel like women become invisible once we become moms, and you’re 45 and people walk by you like you’re not there,” she said of the headline-making Instagram photo in the recent interview. It’s clear than Stone is very much still here and is not afraid to show it.