Brian Austin Green calls Shannen Doherty ‘incredibly strong’ and ‘a fighter’ amid cancer battle
Brian Austin Green has always had Shannen Doherty’s back. The “Old·ish” podcast co-host was on hand as his good friend got a round of applause during the “Beverly Hills, 90210” panel at ’90s Con earlier this month.
“Shannen and I have known each other for a long time. We knew each other well before “90210” started. She is an incredibly strong human being. She’s strong-willed. She is opinionated in what I think is the best possible way you can be. She’s inspirational,” Austin, 50, tells the Post.
“She’s a fighter. And so if anybody were to go through what it is she’s going through, I would absolutely pick her to head the team if that’s what this was,” he continued. “She’s an amazing human being. I’ve had such an amazing, long friendship with her. I love her to death. She’s fantastic.”
Doherty, 52, has Stage 4 breast cancer, revealing in June that her cancer had spread to her brain while sharing a video of her undergoing radiation therapy. Due to the spread, she had a tumor removed from her head following a CT scan.
Doherty and Green were joined by their former costars — Tori Spelling, Jason Priestley, Jennie Garth, Ian Ziering and Gabrielle Carteris — for the event, which was held in Tampa, Florida.
“Thank you so much,” Doherty said on stage while crying. “You guys know how much I love crying constantly. And I do, it seems. So, thank you.”
She continued: “I have a fight for my life, that I deal with every day. I think I am really great.”
In July, the “Charmed” alum again reunited with Austin and his fiancee, Dancing With the Stars’ Sharna Burgess, for his surprise 50th birthday party. On his birthday, he also popped the question to his 38-year-old love.
“It was so nice having her here for my birthday, which it was a surprise party that Sharna threw for me. It was amazing,” Green recalled to The Post.
“And everyone was invited, by the way, of the cast. But a lot of them were working and unable to be there. So it was Ian and Shannen that were able to,” he explained. “It’s hard. We all we all have families and we all live in different places … So getting everybody together is not an easy task. That’s why ’90s Con this last weekend was so fun because it’s like summer camp for us, much like when we were shooting the reboot in Vancouver. It was a reason to all be together and with no distractions. We didn’t have our families around. It was us. So when a weekend came and we didn’t have enough time to fly home and see our families, it was like, okay, so let’s all go to dinner. Let’s do what it is we did when we were young and we didn’t have these responsibilities around. So it sort of gave us a chance to relive a bit of that, which is amazing.”
“Beverly Hills, 90210” ran for 10 seasons from 1990 to 2000. In 2019, the original cast came together for the “BH90210” reboot, which was canceled by Fox after one season. (Luke Perry died at age 52 on March 4, 2019, after suffering a stroke.)
“We have these incredibly complex, incredible histories with each other,” Green says. “We were essentially kids when we were doing the show. And now we are adults and we have kids of our own and we have families and we have these dynamics that are very different. So to have an opportunity to get together with people and almost, you know, not in an unhealthy way, but live the way we did when we were younger and experience each other that way is is an amazing blessing.”
Green has also stayed in touch with Randy Spelling, who played Ryan Sanders in the original series. Younger brother to Tori, 50, Randy, 44, is a co-host alongside Green and Burgess on their new podcast, “Old·ish.”
“I was about 19 or 20 when ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’ ended. And then, Brian, you had Kass, I think, shortly after. And we just naturally kind of lost touch,” Randy explained, referring to Green’s son Kassius, 21, with ex Vanessa Marcil. “And so being back in touch with Brian, doing this show with him and Sharna and getting a chance to rediscover Brian, what I loved about Brian back in the day is still there, but in a completely revamped way where he has grown so much. Brian, you’ve always been wise. You’ve always had a perspective and a very strong seeming purpose. But to hear how you’re using that and to watch that has been really amazing for me to to see and to be a part of it. Feels very natural for me.”
Son to the late Aaron Spelling, Randy stepped away from Hollywood years ago for a more private life. However, he jokes that it didn’t “take that much convincing” to join the new podcast.
“It just felt right. It felt normal and natural. And I thought I would be a little bit more hesitant. But yeah, it just seemed easy,” the now life coach tells The Post of the series, which will explore their own pasts and relatable personal growths and challenges. “We’ve all stumbled in our lives, which has led to this place that we’re in right now. And I think that’s something that we try and share, is that people aren’t perfect and you’re not going to handle every situation in your life the correct way. So we give examples of how we didn’t do that in life. But what has gotten us to this point here is being open to learn. It’s being open to make mistakes and learn from them and grow from them.”
“Old·ish” can be found on the iHeartRadio app or anywhere you listen to podcasts.
