AceShowbiz -

Sharon Stone has opened up about her near-death experience following a severe brain haemorrhage. The actress revealed during an interview with CBS News that she was only given "a five percent" chance of survival after she suffered from the disease back in 2001.

Stone said that the haemorrhage affected her speech, hearing, walking, writing and reading. When asked whether she had to re-learn everything, she answered, "Yes, everything, everything. My whole life was wiped out."

"Others aren't that interested in a broken person. I was alone," she continued. "I'm sure I seemed peculiar coming through this all these years, and I didn't want to tell everybody what was happening because, you know, this is not a forgiving environment. I'm so grateful to have this. The chance of my having it was so slim."

Stone went on revealing that she felt "that I did die" when her brain haemorrhage struck. "This kind of giant vortex of light was upon me and -- poof! I sort of took off into this glorious, white light," she recalled. "I started to see and be met by some of my friends.. People [who had died] who were very, very dear to me."

During the interview, the actress, who gained international recognition after playing Catherine Tramell in "Basic Instinct", was also asked whether she's experienced sexual harassment. Stone burst into laughter after hearing the question, but she quickly answered that she's "seen it all" throughout her long career.

"I've been in this business for 40 years. Can you imagine the business I stepped into 40 years ago?" she said. "Looking like I look, from nowhere Pennsylvania? I didn't come here with any protection. I've seen it all."

She continued, "We were raised to accommodate men, particularly in my generation. And women so often lose their own identity to the identity of the men that they're with. We're starting to acknowledge our own gifts as women and not think that we have to behave as men in order to be empowered or powerful or valuable."