‘Charmed’ Actress Shannen Doherty Dead At 53

Actress Shannen Doherty has passed away at the age of 53.

The "Charmed" actress had been public about her struggles with cancer, which began with a breast cancer diagnosis in 2015. Late last year, she revealed that the cancer had spread to her bones.

On Sunday, July 14, the “Beverly Hills, 90210” actress lost her long battle with breast cancer at the age of 53. She had first been diagnosed with 2015 and had been public about her health struggles in the years following her initial diagnosis.

Doherty’s longtime publicist, Leslie Sloane, confirmed her passing in a statement to People magazine. "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," Sloane said on 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 Tennessee native was open about her health struggles, once asking “Why me?” as her condition worsened. "I definitely have days where I say, 'Why me?'" Doherty told the publication before her passing. "And then I go, well, 'Why not me? Who else? Who else besides me deserves this?' None of us do."

In 2017, her breast cancer had returned after going 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 at the time. "I don't think I've processed it. It's a bitter pill to swallow in a lot of ways.”

Although she struggled with her health, Doherty signed on the TV reboot of “Beverly Hills, 90210” in 2019, playing an adult version of her character, Brenda Walsh. The show first premiered in October 1990. Although she left the show after its fourth season in 1994, she would make several guest appearances on the 2008 reboot “90210.”

Although she was aware of her diagnosis, she revealed on Good Morning Americathat she kept it a secret from the cast after her costar, Luke Perry, died suddenly in March 2019 at age 52.

"It's so weird for me to be diagnosed and then somebody who was, you know, seemingly healthy to go first," Doherty said at the time. "It was really, like, shocking."

One of the reasons that she decided to participate in the TV reboot was to honor the late Perry, noting that it was the “least I could do.”

"One of the reasons, along with Luke, that I did 90210 and didn't tell anybody [was] because I thought, people can look at that [as] people with stage 4 can work too," she explained.

Only three weeks before her death, Shannen Doherty alleged that her ex, Kurt Iswarienko, was purposely delaying their divorce so he would not have to pay spousal support. Court documents obtained by People magazine showed that Doherty was hoping to receive spousal support as she continued to struggle with her health.

“It is simply not right that Kurt be permitted to prolong our divorce in hopes that I die before he is required to pay me while he continues to live his life and shirk his responsibilities to his dying wife of more than 11 years,” she wrote in a June 2024 court filing.

Iswarienko’s lawyer disputed her claim, arguing that she had declined a settlement deal that they had offered in October 2023. Doherty had filed for divorce in April 2023 after 11 years of marriage.

Doherty’s ability to work was affected by her health struggles. In her court filing, she documents how she was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. She went into remission and it returned in 2017. In February 2020, she said that the cancer had returned and stated that it had spread to her bones late last year.

“I don’t want to die,” she told People magazine in November 2023. “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. I’m just not — I’m not done.”