My greatest memory is yet to come,” Shannen Doherty defiantly declared amid her harrowing nine-year battle with cancer.
The actress – who made her mark as a Hollywood bad girl in Heathers and Beverly Hills, 90210 – was hopeful about her future until the end, signing up to appear on a Charmed podcast just days before she passed away at the age of 53.
Even after her breast cancer returned, eventually becoming terminal, spreading to her brain and bones, Shannen remained optimistic about what lay ahead, starting her own podcast, Let’s Be Clear, last December.
“I’m not done with living,” she bravely announced. “I’m not done with loving. I’m not done with creating. I’m not done with hopefully changing things for the better. I’m just not done.”
Sadly for the brave star, resilience wasn’t enough to beat her illness. When her rep confirmed she had died on July 13, the tributes came flooding in from her cherished 90210 co-stars.
‘A force of nature’
Jennie Garth – the blonde Kelly Taylor to Shannen’s rebellious Brenda Walsh – shared photos from their TV days, reflecting on her “real and honest” friendship with her co-star.
“The woman I have often described as one of the strongest people I know,” Jennie wrote. “People so often pitted us against each other. None of that reflected the truth of our real relationship though, which was one built on mutual respect and admiration. She was courageous, passionate, determined, and very loving and generous.”
Having played Brenda’s twin brother Brandon, Jason Priestley said he was “shocked and saddened” at Shannen’s tragic passing.
“She was a force of nature and I will miss her,” he wrote shortly after her death.
In a heartfelt tribute, co-star Tori Spelling recalled how Shannen looked out for her from day one on the set of 90210, which Tori’s late father Aaron produced.
“I was 15 when Shan and I met,” Tori posted. “I was the boss’ daughter with no voice and she was the star with a big voice. She took me under her wing. We became fast best friends… She always stuck up for me. Always had my back.”
Shannen’s devastated co-stars are now planning a tribute to her when they reunite in September for the ’90s Con event in Florida, which she was “so excited to attend”.
An insider says, “She loved being with the gang. They have been her other family her entire life.”
Luke Perry
Meanwhile, co-star Gabrielle Carteris said, “I know Luke is there with open arms to love you,” referring to co-star Luke Perry, who passed away in 2019.
Shannen and Luke, who played Brenda’s hunky love interest Dylan McKay on the teen drama, remained distant friends after the show wrapped. They came back into each other’s lives when doctors diagnosed her with cancer in 2015.
“Luke reached out to me during my cancer journey. We picked right back up, albeit older and wiser, but that connection remained intact,” she said in 2019.
Before Luke’s tragic death from a stroke that year, they were even working towards doing another project together. It was to be “something special and meaningful” for their fans.
“There is a special kind of love one has for each other when you’re experiencing the journey we did on 90210 and, of course, life in general,” the actress said.
Her final goodbye
People have always described Shannen as a loyal friend and a strong woman who always spoke out for what she believed in. However, the opinionated actress also found herself in some co-stars’ bad books.
For years, she openly feuded with her Charmed colleague Alyssa Milano, who has acknowledged their “complicated relationship” but insists that she “deeply respected and was in awe of” Shannen.
Faced with her mortality as she tried to beat the spreading cancer over almost a decade, Shannen had time to prepare for the end and decide who she did – and didn’t want – at her funeral.
“There are a lot of people that I think would show up that I don’t want there,” she said in January. “They’ll show up because it’s the politically correct thing to do and they don’t want to look bad. I kinda want to take the pressure off them and I want my funeral to be like a love fest. I don’t want people to be crying or people to privately be like, ‘Thank God that bitch is dead now.’”
Unapologetically herself, Shannen used the time she had left to help other women facing cancer. When fellow actress Olivia Munn found out she had breast cancer, she reached out to Shannen for support. They became “instant friends”.
“Looking back on the last text she sent me just a couple months ago, she asked how I was doing and if she could do anything for me,” Olivia said.
An ongoing heartbreak
In her final days, Shannen was dealing with heartache as well as cancer. Her ongoing divorce battle with her ex Kurt Iswarienko tortured her. The actress had claimed he “hopes that I die before he is required to pay me”. The day before she passed, the pair finally settled their separation after more than a year in court.
“She literally was fighting him right to the bitter end. She got what she wanted and was able to die peacefully knowing she’d had her reckoning with Kurt,” an insider says of the divorce, which stipulated that neither would receive spousal support.
Shannen filed to end their 11-year marriage in April 2023 over his infidelity. She later revealed that she discovered his two-year affair before she went into surgery to remove a brain tumour.
“At the end of the day, I just felt so incredibly unloved by someone I was with for 14 years. By someone I loved with all my heart,” she admitted.
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