Brooke Shields has "had it" with male doctors after being made to feel like a "crazy actress" when she suffered a seizure that left her frothing at the mouth.
The 58-year-old actress collapsed while preparing for her one-woman show in New York in September, and when tests showed it was due to low sodium levels, the 'Suddenly Susan' star was left infuriated when medics assumed she'd deliberately changed her diet to look slimmer.
She explained to America's Glamour magazine: "Low sodium. I had had too much water. I flooded my system, and I drowned myself.
"And if you don’t have enough sodium in your blood or urine or your body, you can have a seizure.
"And then male doctors kept asking me if I was limiting my salt. And I said, 'You know what? I’ve had it with male doctors. I know you’re all smart - smarter than I am in what you do. But let me just tell you something: I look younger when I’m bloated. If I’m bloated, people think I’ve had Botox. So as a 58-year-old woman, I’m not limiting my salt, okay? Stop trying to make me a crazy actress or a female that doesn’t know what the f*** they’re doing.'
"I was drinking too much water because I felt dehydrated because I was singing more than I’ve ever sung in my life and doing a show and a podcast. So they were just like, 'Eat potato chips every day.' "
When Shields had her grand mal seizure at the L’Artusi restaurant, staff were unable to get hold of her husband Chris Henchy, but her spouse's assistant contacted another assistant and she ended up with Hollywood hunk Bradley Cooper coming to her aid - something the 'Pretty Baby' star admitted was so "odd and surreal" she thought she was experiencing death.
She said: "The next thing I remember, I'm being loaded into an ambulance. I have oxygen on. And Bradley f****** Cooper is sitting next to me holding my hand.
"I didn’t have a sense of humour. I couldn’t really get any words out.
"But I thought to myself, This is what death must be like. You wake up and Bradley Cooper’s going, 'I’m going to go to the hospital with you, Brooke,' and he’s holding my hand. And I’m looking at my hand, I’m looking at Bradley Cooper’s hand in my hand, and I’m like, 'This is odd and surreal.' "
Explaining how the 'Hangover' star had come to be there, she said: "His assistant called Bradley and said, 'Brooke’s on the ground. Chris isn’t around. Go get her.' And he came, and somebody called the ambulance. And then it was like, I walked in with Jesus.“