Shannen Doherty has been battling cancer for years. The veteran star has also been open about her journey and recently got candid about her declining health and the possibility of dying.
Doherty was first diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2015. Sadly, she was forced to disclose the illness after legal documents surfaced. She had filed a lawsuit against her former business manager, who failed to pay her insurance premiums, leaving her unable to receive medical treatment.
The lawsuit revealed the actress “discovered that she had invasive breast cancer” and that it had already spread during 2014, which was the period when she was uninsured. After the lawsuit made headlines, Doherty confirmed the diagnosis:
“Yes, I have breast cancer, and I am currently undergoing treatment.”
Two years later, in April 2017, the “Charmed” alum shared on her Instagram that her cancer was in remission. She did not know how to react to the news and felt overwhelmed.
The actress admitted that the next five years would be “crucial” while acknowledging she knew cancer could return. As she predicted, it did, this time as a form of stage 4, Doherty revealed during an interview on “ABC News” in February 2020.
The TV star, who is best known for starring in “Beverly Hills, 90210,” alongside Brian Austin Green and Tori Spelling, divulged that she had kept mum about the news for a year and, up until that point, had not processed things yet:
“It’s a bitter pill to swallow, in a lot of ways.”
In January 2023, Doherty underwent surgery where doctors had to remove a tumor in her head and do a biopsy. She revealed this in an Instagram post five months later showing a video of her in the hospital and captioned it:
“I am clearly trying to be brave, but I am petrified. The fear was overwhelming to me.”
Doherty Gives Health Update & Talks about Death
Doherty spoke frankly about the disease in a recent interview. She revealed that her cancer spread to her bones while also mentioning the possibility of passing away:
“I’m not afraid of death because I know where I’m going. […] I think I’d be afraid of death if I wasn’t a good person, but I am. I don’t want to die, that’s the difference.”
The dark-haired beauty described the head surgery she previously underwent as one of the “scariest” things that she had ever experienced in her life. She could not even hold a glass in her right hand.
But despite her eight-year journey with the disease, she intends to soldier on and look forward to the future. “I’m not done with living. I’m not done with loving. I’m not done with creating,” said the Hollywood star. Doherty noted she finds it baffling that cancer has been a plague for so many years, yet there is no cure for it. Either way, she has chosen to “embrace life.”