Sharon Stone reveals why she felt 'glee and relief' at abusive grandfather's funeral

• Sharon Stone felt "glee and relief and emptiness" at her grandfather's funeral
• Stone and her sister Kelly were abused by grandfather Clarence Lawson as toddlers
• Stone recalled reaching into the casket to confirm her grandfather was dead'

Sharon Stone has spoken candidly about the complex emotions she experienced following the death of her maternal grandfather, Clarence Lawson, whom she has described as a serial abuser who targeted her, her sister and their mother.

The Basic Instinct actress, 68, addressed the subject during a Friday appearance on the All There Is with Anderson Cooper podcast, building on disclosures she first made in her memoir, The Beauty of Living Twice.

'A creature we tried to avoid'

Speaking to Anderson Cooper, 59, Stone was unflinching in her account of Lawson's behaviour. "He was an abuser who abused my mom and did everything he could possibly do to get near us to be abusive of us," she told the host.

She went on to add: "And he was not a grandfather, he was a creature that we tried to avoid at all costs."

Abuse that began in toddlerhood

In her memoir, Stone revealed that she and her younger sister, Kelly, were abused by their grandfather from the time they were toddlers. Their grandmother, who was herself abused by Lawson, contributed to the abuse by trapping the girls in a room with him during family visits. Lawson died when Stone was 14 years old. Kelly was just 11 at the time.

Reaching into the casket

At Lawson's funeral, Stone recalled physically reaching into his open casket to be certain he was dead. She described the moment in her memoir with striking clarity.

"I poked him, and the bizarre satisfaction that he was at last dead hit me like a ton of ice," she writes. "I looked at [Kelly] and she understood; she was 11, and it was over." She continued: "It's a very weird thing when you're a kid and the first experience you have of death is glee and relief and emptiness."

'Good emptiness'

Returning to the memory during her Friday interview with Cooper, Stone described the atmosphere at Lawson's funeral as starkly different from a conventional memorial service. "People usually kind of meander in, sit down, talk. There's usually a gentle, caring, and a hand-holding, and a thoughtfulness at a funeral," she said, before clarifying that there was "none of that" at Lawson's ceremony.

The only feelings she was left with were those she had named before. "It will be a picture in my mind forever of that weird sense of emptiness, good emptiness," she told Cooper.