Sharon Stone won't ever allow herself to be "defined" by a man.

Sharon Stone

Sharon Stone

The 59-year-old actress - who was previously married to TV producer Michael Greenburg and newspaper executive Phil Bronstein - won't confirm whether or not she's currently single, but she is adamant that she won't be in a relationship unless it is an "actual partnership".

Speaking to the new issue of Grazia magazine, she said: "I was just not that girl who was told that a man would define me. I was told that if I wanted to have a man in my life, it wouldn't be an arrangement, it would be an actual partnership. And those are hard to find."

The 'Mosaic' star is parent to three adopted sons, Roan, 17, Laird, 12, and 11-year-old Quinn and she readily admits they all completely changed her life.

The 'Basic Instinct' star explained: "Having three kids certainly will change your reality. And I think that not trying to be a girl and allowing yourself to be a grown-up woman is also very helpful."

Sharon - who almost died after suffering a stroke and brain haemorrhage in 2001 - can currently be seen as a murder victim, wealthy author Olivia Lake, in Steven Soderbergh's drama 'Mosaic' and she finds it refreshing that her character's personal history, including whether or not she has children, isn't addressed in the show.

She said: "She's everything isn't she? She's needy, vulnerable and narcissistic, and she's frozen - she's stuck and sort of disintegrating.

"We don't know if she was married before or what her other life could have been - we just kind of pick her up mid-stream. We just let her be.

"We don't have to look under her petticoat to know she's a woman, at long last."