• Basic Instinct star made revelation at a Hollywood fundraising gala last week

Sharon Stone has revealed that she lost half her money in the recent banking crisis.

The Basic Instinct star broke down at a glittering Hollywood fundraising gala last week as she urged the audience to donate money to a cancer charity.

She told them: ‘I just lost half my money to this banking thing and that doesn’t mean that I’m not here.’

It is unclear which bank Ms Stone, 65 – who has a reported £50 million fortune – lost her money with, but the gala she attended – a Women’s Cancer Fund event – took place last Thursday, just days after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

These were the second and third largest bank failures in US history after the implosion of Washington Mutual Bank during the 2008 financial crisis.

The US Federal Reserve has stepped in to guarantee all deposits held at the two banks, which makes it is unlikely that Ms Stone, who lives in a £18million Beverly Hills home, will lose any money.

Imploring guests at last week’s gala to make donations, she also said: ‘I know that thing that you have to get on and figure out how to text the money is difficult.

‘I’m a technical idiot, but I can write a f***ing cheque.’

She also opened up about her own health battles including a near-fatal stroke in 2001 and surgery to remove tumours in her breasts in the 1990s. 

A spokesman for Ms Stone declined to comment.