Shannen Doherty Shares Heartbreaking Update on Her Cancer Diagnosis

From Woman's Day

UPDATE 2/12/20: Shannen Doherty has taken to Instagram for the first time since revealing that she's once again battling breast cancer via an exclusive interview with Good Morning America. Sharing her "stage 4" diagnosis, Doherty recounted how her breast cancer returned almost five years after she was first diagnosed. "It's a bitter pill to swallow in a lot of ways," she told ABC News' Amy Robach at the time. And while she's recently revealed that "to say I'm struggling is mild" amid her most recent diagnosis, Doherty also had a positive message to share via social media.

"It's an odd time right now and I find my feet not completely underneath me... to say I have stress is an understatement," Doherty wrote in an Instagram post shared yesterday, opening up about her daily struggle with the life-threatening condition. "But... I believe that I will find my footing. I'll dig deep for the inner strength I need to face it all."

Since the initial interview has aired, thousands of fans have expressed their well wishes for Doherty's recovery — but the most important messages of support have come from her friends and costars. In an earlier Instagram post, 90210 costar Tori Spelling was the first to comment on Doherty's heartbreaking news with well wishes. "Sending lots of love, support, and animal vibes to make you smile, xoxo," she wrote. Since then, Doherty's closest supporters have also shared messages of hope: "I get to live my life with you, that makes me the lucky one," actress Sarah Michelle Gellar said in a comment. "You are lighting up the path. You are loved," said Selma Blair, who is also in the public spotlight for her struggles with multiple sclerosis.

Doherty previously revealed at length how much fellow BH90210 star Brian Austin Green helped her get through shooting the show's sequel in 2019, adding that Green "would always call me and say, whatever happens, I have your back." But it seems that Doherty has so many more supporters to fall back on as she continues her journey to being totally cancer free. "I want to thank all of you for your love, prayers and support," she said via her newest Instagram post. "Please know how much you all help lift me."

ORIGINAL, 02/04/20: Nearly five years after her first diagnosis, Shannen Doherty has revealed that she's once again battling breast cancer — and has been doing so privately for almost a year. In an interview that aired on Good Morning America on Tuesday, the 48-year-old actress shared that she's currently at "stage 4" despite entering remission in 2017, telling ABC News' Amy Robach that she hasn't "processed it" and that "it's a bitter pill to swallow in a lot of ways."

Doherty first opened up about her cancer diagnosis in 2015, where she underwent multiple treatments throughout the next two years, including chemotherapy and radiation. While it's unclear exactly when she discovered that her cancer had returned, Doherty said that she had been grappling with the return of her diagnosis for a whole year. “I definitely have days where I say ‘Why me?’ And then I go, ‘Well, why not me? Who else? Who else besides me deserves this? None of us do,’” she said. “And I would say that my first reaction is always concern about how — how am I going to tell my mom, my husband.”

By the time that the former 90210 star agreed to participate in a reboot of the popular '90s television series in 2019 — shortly before costar and friend Luke Perry tragically died in February — Doherty shared that she was hopeful about her recovering health. "I'm doing fine. I get checked on a regular basis," she told Variety at the time. Despite being re-diagnosed in that same year, Doherty said that she felt she needed to continue working; in part, to honor her friend Perry, but mostly because she wanted to prove that those living with cancer can continue to work after receiving such devastating news.

“People can look at that and say ‘Oh my god, yeah, she can work, and other people with stage 4 can work too,’” she told Robach during the interview. “Like, you know, our life doesn’t end the minute we get that diagnosis. We still have some living to do.”

But she may have found the challenge of shooting Fox's BH90210 too great if she didn't open up to Brian Austin Green, another 90210 star that has seemingly become one of Doherty's biggest supporters over the years. While she kept the news of her cancer recurrence under wraps to most, Doherty says she was able to get through long production days with Green's never-ending support. "I had moments of great anxiety where I thought, 'I can't really do this,' and Brian was the one person...that I told pretty quickly," she said. "Prior to shooting [the show], he would always call me and say, whatever happens, I have your back."

Facing her own health struggle at the time, Doherty admitted that Perry's untimely death in 2019 was rather jarring. "It's so weird for me to be diagnosed and then somebody who was, you know, seemingly healthy to go first," she said early in the interview. But she later clarified that Green also helped her process her own grief and loss and stay focused while working on the new BH90210. "We were able to talk about Luke in a way that's very positive and uplifting, and sort of remember a lot of great moments. "

Shortly after the GMA interview aired, Doherty acknowledged the new outpouring of support from her friends and fans by taking to Instagram herself. She shared an encouraging cartoon snapshot featuring Peanuts characters Snoopy and Charlie Brown, where Snoopy puts a positive spin on a grim outlook, a strategy that Doherty previously told People she tries to adopt every day. “I’m trying to be kinder to myself,” she said. “And I try to live each day as an amazing, precious gift that I’ve been given.”

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