'I was down to nothing': Sharon Stone was penniless after near-fatal stroke

Sharon Stone

was penniless after her near-fatal stroke.

The

actress — who has sons Roan, 23, Laird, 18, and Quinn, 17 — suffered a stroke back in 2001, brought on by a brain hemorrhage that resulted in a nine-day brain bleed and saw her die briefly and came back to life, and she has now revealed that she was

.

She told Australia's

magazine: "I was down to nothing. I had to pay the kids' school on my credit card and hope for the best. I just got on my knees and I was like, 'I need a sign... and could you make it big because I'm going to need something that I can't miss because I'm in a coma here. So like, help me out.'"

The 65-year-old actress says she is going through a near-death experience putting a stop to caring what other people think about her.

She said: "While I was recovering from my stroke, I reassessed everything.

And people could love me, hate me, like me, dislike me, judge me, do whatever they wanted. But take it or leave it, man. I feel free pretty much all the time."

Sharon hid her disability for years because

.

The movie star — best known for playing femme fatale roles in Hollywood — previously revealed that she was snubbed by the industry as the stroke

and ability to remember lines.

The actress took a two-decade-long hiatus from acting while she was in recovery.

She told

: "I bled so much into my subarachnoid pool [head, neck and spine] that the right side of my face fell, my left foot was dragging severely, and I was stuttering very badly.

"For the first couple of years, I would also get these weird knuckle-like knots that would come up all over the top of my head that felt like I was getting punched. I can't express how painful it all was. I hid my disability and I was afraid to go out and didn't want people to know. I just thought no one would accept me."

She was forced to relearn how to walk and talk while fighting to regain custody of her eldest son — who was taken away from her after she was accused of having

.

Sharon, who doesn't let her illness define her, added: "I think many people identify with their illness as 'I am this thing,' and it cannot be your identity.

"In my case, so much was taken from me. I lost custody of my child, I lost my career and was not able to work, I was going through a divorce and being put through the ringer, I lost so much, and I "I could have allowed that to define me. But you have to stand up and say, 'Okay, that happened, and now what? What am I made of?'"