SHANNEN OPENS UP ABOUT HER CANCER BATTLE

Now healthy, Shannen Doherty reveals how devastating illness has made her appreciate life and love

With her black hair in a self-described “sexy Parisian” cut and her skin glowing, Shannen Doherty looked gorgeous and healthy at a Farrah Fawcett Foundation event honoring Stand Up to Cancer in Beverly Hills on Sept. 9. “I’m great!” the Beverly Hills, 90210 alum, whose breast cancer has been in remission since April, told Life & Style. “I feel very strong!”

But Shannen’s recovery isn’t just physical. In an exclusive interview, the actress, 46, tells Life & Style she’s emerged from her harrowing two-year battle with cancer as a changed person with a new outlook on life. The past two years “made me a better person,” she says. “It taught me a different kind of strength.” Before, she says, her idea of being strong “was more of a toughness. Now it comes from more of a vulnerable space, which I think is a good thing.” And she has an almost impossibly positive way of seeing what she’s been through: “I feel blessed that I’m in remission, [and] I feel blessed I had cancer in the first place,” she says. “I’m very happy. It’s a second chance at life.”

CLOSER TO LOVED ONES

She’s making the most of it. After she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015, she went through horrific bouts of chemotherapy and radiation. As nightmarish as it was, Shannen has said her illness made her six-year marriage to photographer hubby Kurt Iswarienko, 43, “a thousand times stronger.” And she tells Life & Style it also made her value her relationships with her mother, friends, late father (“my dad was with me from heaven”) and her oncologist, Dr. Lawrence Piro, who oversaw her treatments. Now she’s making an effort to keep those loved ones close. “I have people that I value more than anything in my life,” she says.

Shannen also discovered she was valued, even by former co-stars she had

famously feuded with years ago. 90210’ s Jennie Garth, Luke Perry, Ian Ziering and Jason Priestley all reached out to her to express support, and Charmed co-star Alyssa Milano said they put their rift behind them (see box, left). Shannen’s also forming new relationships: The actress, who starred with Winona Ryder and Christian Slater in the 1988 movie Heathers, has a role in the TV series reboot on TV Land. “It’s so good,” she tells Life & Style, “that I’m just happy to be a part of it in any capacity.”

Besides getting back to acting, Shannen’s devoting her time to helping Dr. Piro in the fight against cancer. She’s speaking out, raising awareness of the vaccine that prevents HPV ( human papillomavirus). (“Five percent of the world’s cancer,” Dr. Piro tells Life & Style, “is caused by HPV.”) “I get to hang out with this amazing man, Dr. Piro, and bring awareness to cancer and all the work that has been done,” Shannen says. “It feels fantastic!”