On the Thursday, June 25 episode of “All There Is Live with Anderson Cooper,” Sharon Stone described the moment she realized she had to stop hovering over her mother, Dorothy, and go upstairs—so Dorothy could die peacefully. Stone said her mother had been “hol
When Sharon Stone walked away from her dying mother, she didn’t do it because she was ready to leave.
She did it because she felt the weight of one last decision pressing in at her bedside.
Stone. 68. recalled the night Dorothy was dying during the Thursday. June 25 episode of “All There Is Live with Anderson Cooper” podcast. Stone said her mother didn’t want to die and had been “really fighting it.” She tied the turning point to hospice care at home. explaining that it was “down to those moments where they titrate the morphine that we had in home medical staff.”.
Stone said Dorothy had been “holding on and holding on” for hours. and eventually she realized she had to change how she was present in the room. “I finally realized, ‘I have to let go. I need to release my mother. I need to stop walking in the room. I need to go upstairs and ignore my mother so she will die,’” Stone said.
In Stone’s telling, it wasn’t about denying her mother—it was about giving her mother permission to let go. Stone said she believed Dorothy would only die if she detached. “I thought], ‘I need to detach and release, and she’s only going to die if I let go.’”
That meant swallowing the urge to stay where she could constantly check the room. “It was hard” to let go and watch Dorothy die, Stone said, adding that she wanted more moments with her mom—something she didn’t feel she would get.
“I wanted her to say, ‘I’m proud of you. I love you. I’m sorry. You’re important to me.’ I wasn’t going to get them,” Stone said. “I had to make peace with the fact that my mom was not going to do that. … I had to go upstairs and close the door, and I did it.”
After Stone left the room, an orderly eventually told her to come downstairs because Dorothy was dying. Stone said she resisted at first: “I said, ‘No, nope.’ … I had to hold so she could die,” she said. “And then [the medical team] came up and said, ‘She died, we’re going to take her out. Do you want to come down?’ I had to hold because I had to allow her [to have] her release.”.
Dorothy died in July 2025, four years after suffering an acute stroke. Stone said Dorothy had been living with her daughter while on hospice.
Stone added that when Dorothy died. it was at Stone’s house and Stone had been taking care of her—but Dorothy “didn’t want it to be acknowledged between us that it was me.” Stone said she had to act as if she were staff. coming in “with a towel over my arm” and telling Dorothy. “Good afternoon. Mrs. Stone.” Stone described caregiving as if others were there. then said that when they were alone. Dorothy “unloaded all the trauma of her childhood that she hadn’t been able to say.”.
For Stone, the night of Dorothy’s death was shaped by an agonizing balance: staying close enough to care, and stepping back enough to let go. In the end, she said she wanted Dorothy to die in peace—and that, for Dorothy to have that peace, Stone had to release her.
Sharon Stone Dorothy Stone All There Is Live with Anderson Cooper hospice morphine titration mother died July 2025 2001 stroke related mention