Jason Priestley: How ‘admirable’ Shannen Doherty is managing her ‘difficult’ cancer battle
Jason Priestley said his “Beverly Hills, 90210” co-star Shannen Doherty is “very positive” as she battles Stage 4 breast cancer.
“She’s being very proactive and it’s a difficult situation but I think that Shannen is managing it in a positive way,” Priestley, 54, told The Post while promoting his new CW series, “Wild Cards.”
“She’s using her [podcast] platform to try to help people and it’s a very admirable quality.”
Doherty, 52, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 after her dog, Bowie, started to “obsessively sniff” her side, according to an interview she did with CBS News last November.
In 2016, the cancer spread to her lymph nodes and she underwent eight brutal rounds of radiation and chemotherapy.
She went into remission the following year, but in 2018 her tumor markers became elevated, according to the Associate Press — and, in 2020, she announced on “Good Morning America” that her cancer had returned as Stage 4.
In January 2023, Doherty shared on Instagram that the cancer had spread to her brain. “But that fear…. The turmoil….. the timing of it all…. This is what cancer can look like,” she wrote alongside video of her getting a CT scan.
Last November, she revealed the the cancer had spread to her bones. She posted an Instagram video in which she said: “We’re on a really good regiment right now and it’s working well for me, so day by day, month by month, year by year.”
Doherty and Priestley played twins Brenda and Brandon Walsh, respectively, on “Beverly Hills, 90201.” The hit Fox series aired from 1990 to 2000 with co-stars Tori Spelling, Ian Ziering, Luke Perry, Jennie Garth, Gabrielle Carteris and Brian Austin Green. (Perry died from a stroke in 2019 at the age of 52.)
Doherty co-starred on the first four seasons of “90210.” She now hosts a popular podcast, “Let’s Be Clear,” on which Priestley was recently a guest.
“It was fun doing the podcast,” Priestley told The Post. “Shannen and I see each other a couple of times a year but don’t ever seem to sit down and have big, heavy, in-depth conversations.
“So doing her podcast, and being on there for an hour, with just her and I talking, was very enlightening.
“It was nice.”
On the podcast, Doherty joked around about the “chemistry” between Brenda and Brandon on the series.
“Brenda and Brandon were always so interesting because we had an interesting relationship,” she said, causing Priestley to laugh. “There was this sexual undertone of Brenda and Brandon that to this day is hysterical.”
On Jan. 23, Doherty paid touching tribute to her “90201” co-star David Gail, who played her on-screen fiancé, Stuart Carson, by posting an image of the two of them from the series on her Instagram page sans a caption.
Gail died died Jan. 16 at age 58, due to complications from sudden cardiac arrest, his rep told The Post.
Priestley told The Post that he’s still in touch with his “90210” co-stars.
“I stay in touch with everybody,” he said. “We’re all in group chats together and we all stay in contact pretty closely.
“We all worked together for so long and went through such a unique experience together that it sort of bonded us for life.
“I was lucky to be a part of it.”
