The ‘Beverly Hills 90210’ and ‘Charmed’ star was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015
Shannen Doherty has died after years of living with cancer, PEOPLE has confirmed. She was 53.
“It is with a heavy heart that I confirm the passing of actress Shannen Doherty. On Saturday, July 13, she lost her battle with cancer after many years of fighting the disease,” Doherty’s longtime publicist Leslie Sloane confirmed in an exclusive statement to PEOPLE on Sunday, July 14.
“The devoted daughter, sister, aunt and friend was surrounded by her loved ones as well as her dog, Bowie. The family asks for their privacy at this time so they can grieve in peace,” Sloane continued.
The Beverly Hills 90210 star was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 and spoke candidly to PEOPLE in November 2023 about her Stage 4 breast cancer, which had by then spread to her bones, saying at the time that she didn’t “want to die.”
“I’m not done with living. I’m not done with loving. I’m not done with creating. I’m not done with hopefully changing things for the better,” she told PEOPLE. “I’m just not — I’m not done.”
Following her 2015 diagnosis, the actress revealed in April 2017 that she had gone into remission, though by 2019, the cancer returned. The following year Doherty announced her diagnosis of metastatic stage 4 cancer. Then, in June of 2023, the actress shared that the cancer had spread to her brain and that she had undergone surgery.
In June 2023, she shared on Instagram that the cancer had spread to her brain and that she had undergone surgery five months earlier to remove a brain tumor, which she had named Bob.
“He had to get removed and dissected to see his pathology,” she told PEOPLE in August 2023. “It was definitely one of the scariest things I’ve ever been through in my entire life.”
Despite that, the actress was determined to continue working as she lived with the disease.
“People just assume that it means you can’t walk, you can’t eat, you can’t work. They put you out to pasture at a very early age —‘You’re done, you’re retired,’ and we’re not,” she said, adding “We’re vibrant, and we have such a different outlook on life. We are people who want to work and embrace life and keep moving forward.”
Indeed, before her death, Doherty hoped to raise awareness and funds for cancer research — at the same time showing others that people like herself, with terminal cancer, are still individuals with plenty to contribute.
“When you ask yourself, ‘Why me? Why did I get cancer?’ and then ‘Why did my cancer come back? Why am I stage 4?,’ that leads you to look for the bigger purpose in life,” she said.
Her candid comments echoed her words from a 2020 interview with Amy Robach that aired on Good Morning America, in which she was equally pragmatic.
“I definitely have days where I say, ‘Why me?'” Doherty told Robach at the time of the development in her health at the time. “And then I go, well, ‘Why not me? Who else? Who else besides me deserves this?’ None of us do.”
That interview with Robach marked Doherty first revealing her breast cancer had returned as stage 4 cancer after she had previously gone into remission.
“It’s going to come out in a matter of days or a week that I’m stage 4. So my cancer came back, and that’s why I’m here,” Doherty said on Good Morning America. “I don’t think I’ve processed it. It’s a bitter pill to swallow in a lot of ways.”
Although she gained praise for openly talking about living with cancer later in life, Doherty rose to fame as Brenda Walsh on the original Beverly Hills, 90210, which premiered in October 1990.
The actress left the show after the fourth season in 1994. (She later revisited the character with several guest appearances on the 2008 reboot 90210.)
After her Beverly Hills fame, Doherty was cast in Charmed as Prue Halliwell, the oldest of three sisters who are witches. Along with starring in the series, she also directed several episodes, she left the show at the end of the third season in 2001.
Source people.com
