Rose McGowan 'regrets' not getting to know Shannen Doherty 'sooner' after being 'pitted against each other' over Charmed
Rose McGowan looked back on her friendship with the late Shannen Doherty, expressing regret that their bond hadn't begun earlier.
The actress, 50, opened up about their relationship on Friday's episode of the Let’s Be Clear With Shannen Doherty podcast.
The program, which continues to be produced by Shannen's mother and friends, carries on following Shannen's passing at 53 from cancer on July 13.
'If I have any regrets, I wish I could have gotten to know her sooner,' McGowan began. 'I don’t know how it would have happened, but I wish we could have.'
She then referred to Shannen, who had courageously battled breast cancer since 2015, as 'the bravest, bravest champion' she’s known.
Rose McGowan looked back on her friendship with the late Shannen Doherty , expressing regret that their bond hadn't begun earlier; (pictured in 2019)
'If I have any regrets, I wish I could have gotten to know her sooner,' McGowan began. 'I don’t know how it would have happened, but I wish we could have'; (Shannen and Rose circa 2008)
'We were really pitted against each other,' the star, who joined Charmed after Shannen's dramatic exit from the CW series in 2001, continued. 'I was just told she was fired and nobody talked about her.'
Shannen, Holly Marie Combs, and Alyssa Milano portrayed the Halliwell witches in Charmed's first three seasons.
Doherty left before season 4 amidst reported tensions with Milano (although Milano denies any responsibility for her departure), leading to McGowan's introduction as their younger half-sister.
McGowan has consistently chosen not to criticize her predecessor.
'I refused to take the bait. They wanted me to start a war with her, and I was like, "Absolutely not. I will not start a war with her,"' she added on Friday.
'And to her credit, she absolutely did not do that either.'
McGowan felt thankful for the chance to deeply connect with Doherty in her final year and a half, calling it an 'amazing gift.'
'The biggest misconception about her was that she was hard. But at the same time, it was the truth, but it’s not who she was natively. And I would say that was the biggest misconception about me as well.
She then referred to Shannen, who had courageously battled breast cancer since 2015 , as 'the bravest, bravest champion' she’s known (Rose, Shannen and Holly Marie Combs speak during a Q&A session at MegaCon Orlando 2024)
'We were really pitted against each other,' the star, who joined Charmed after Shannen's dramatic exit from the CW series in 2001 , continued. 'I was just told she was fired and nobody talked about her.'
Doherty left before season 4 amidst reported tensions with Milano (although Milano denies any responsibility for her departure), leading to McGowan's introduction as their younger half-sister
'We both just like to laugh. Soft, underneath it all.'
In 2015, Doherty announced she had been diagnosed with cancer. After undergoing two years of chemotherapy, she achieved remission.
However, the disease reappeared in 2020, now at stage IV breast cancer.
By November 2023, the Beverly Hills, 90210 star confirmed that the cancer had metastasized to her bones. In July 2024, Shannen passed away.
At the time, Rose expressed profound grief as she joined fellow celebrities in paying tribute to Shannen.
'I can’t stop crying,' she commented via Instagram. 'A world without Shannen Doherty is inconceivable.'
'Shannen Doherty had the heart of a lion,' the Scream star wrote alongside a heartbreaking photo album. 'Passion for craft is often mislabeled as trouble. Shannen was passion.'
She continued: 'I met her in the 90s and was awed. Getting to really know her later in life, a beautiful gift.
The Beverly Hills 90210 icon got candid about gearing up for the drug treatment during the June 24 episode of her Let's Be Clear podcast
Rose's tribute came after reports that Shannen said she was 'wrecked' at the thought of starting chemotherapy again, just three weeks before she passed away on Saturday at the age of 53.
The star — who was was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 — got candid about gearing up for the drug treatment during the June 24 episode of her Let's Be Clear podcast.
'I’m having to go back on chemo and it’s really hard,' the actress said at the time. 'The idea of going through that all over again has wrecked me.'
In the same podcast episode, she confessed the past year was 'really hard' for her.
'I don't think I've processed it. It's a bitter pill to swallow in a lot of ways,' she said.
Last year she announced that her cancer had spread to her brain in an Instagram post that showed her undergoing radiation therapy.
She teased a new episode of her podcast Let's Be Clear by sharing a snippet on her official Instagram account.
Shannen said she was 'wrecked' at the thought of starting chemotherapy again, just three weeks before she passed away on Saturday at the age of 53; (pictured February)
In October 1990, Doherty starred in the original Beverly Hills 90210, but left the series after the fourth season in 1994. She came back to the show as a guest star in 2008 after it rebooted.
Following the popular series, she went on to star in the witch drama, Charmed. Doherty played Prue Halliwell, the oldest of the three witch sisters.
After directing several episodes of Charmed, Doherty left the series in 2001. She then moved on to reality television, as a contestant on Dancing with the Stars and in the show Breaking Up with Shannen Doherty.
She joined the 2019 reboot of 90210 and played the adult version of Brenda Walsh.
