‘I HAVE TERMINAL CANCER’ Shannen Doherty’s shock diagnosis
‘Beverly Hills 90210’ star reveals heartbreaking new diagnosis: ‘I don’t think I’ve processed it’
Over two years since her breast cancer went into remission, an emotional Shannen Doherty has opened up about finding out that the disease has returned and is now at stage 4. “I don’t think I’ve processed it,” she told ABC’s Good Morning America, “It’s a bitter pill to swallow in a lot of ways. I definitely have days where I say, ‘Why me?’ and then I go, well, ‘Why not me? Who else? Who else besides me deserves this?’ None of us do.”
The Charmed actress was given the diagnosis early last year, but kept it secret. She was forced to go public last week as she is suing insurance company State Farm over a fire that damaged her home in 2018. They have paid out $1.6 million, but she is claiming $5.9 million.
Her lawyers have filed papers to the court stating: “Shannen Doherty is dying of stage 4 terminal cancer”. They added: “Instead of living out her remaining years peacefully in her home, Ms Doherty remains displaced and battling with her insurance company.” State Farm told the Daily Mail: “We empathise with Ms Doherty’s health issues and wish her a full recovery. We strongly believe we have upheld our commitment to our customer and have paid what we owe.”
Doherty, 48, exclusively revealed to WHO her first cancer diagnosis in 2015. She had delayed getting a lump checked out because her business managers had failed to pay her health insurance. She speculated at the time whether that might have led to the cancer spreading further before she could start treatment. After undergoing gruelling chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and a single mastectomy, she announced in April 2017 that she was in remission.
Throughout her medical journey, the star kept fans updated but hid the news that it was terminal because of the death of her friend and co-star Luke Perry in March last year. “It’s so weird for me to be diagnosed and then somebody who was, you know, seemingly healthy, to go first,” she said. “It was really, like, shocking.”
Doherty said participating in last year’s reboot of Beverly Hills, 90210 was the “least I could do” to honour Perry, but it was also an opportunity to prove that she could continue to work despite her health. “People can look at that [as] people with stage 4 can work too,” she explained. “Our life doesn’t end the minute we get that diagnosis.”
Stage 4 cancer means the disease has spread, or metastasised, beyond the breasts to other parts of the body such as the lymph nodes, brain or bones. The five-year survival rate is around 22 per cent, but is dependent on several factors.
A year ago, Doherty told Health magazine about how the experience had forced her to become strong in a different way than she had been beforehand. “I felt more feminine and vulnerable than I’ve felt in my entire life,” she said at the time. “I was always used to being the strong one, and during that time period every wall I’d built up in my life came down.”
After rising to fame in 90210 in 1990, Doherty gained a reputation as the iconic Hollywood bad girl of the decade, feuding with co-stars, partying heavily, turning up late for filming, posing nude for Playboy and even getting into punch-ups.
In 1993 she was briefly engaged to Max Factor heir Dean Jay Factor until he was granted a restraining order against her. A few months later, she wed actor Ashley Hamilton, but the marriage only lasted a year. In 2002 she married again, this time to Rick Salomon, who would achieve infamy two years later when he released a sex tape with Paris Hilton. Their union was annulled after nine months.
She has been married to celebrity photographer Kurt Iswarienko since 2011. In 2016, he sued his wife’s former management for ruining his sex life by letting the health insurance lapse and delaying her treatment.
“I was always used to being the strong one”