Alyssa Milano Reacts to Charmed Costar Shannen Doherty’s Death
Alyssa Milano , Shannen Doherty Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic ; LISA O’CONNOR/AFP via Getty Images
Alyssa Milano is paying tribute to Shannen Doherty.
“It’s no secret that Shannen and I had a complicated relationship, but at its core was someone I deeply respected and was in awe of,” Milano, 51, said in a statement to Us Weekly on Sunday, July 14. “She was a talented actress, beloved by many and the world is less without her. My condolences to all who loved her.”
Us confirmed on Sunday that Doherty died following a lengthy battle with cancer. She was 53.
“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,” Doherty’s publicist Leslie Sloane said in a statement to Us. “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.”
The power of three will set us free … from everything but drama. Charmed, which premiered on The WB in 1998, made headlines from the start as Aaron Spelling hired Shannen Doherty to play one of the three Halliwell sisters, four years after she was infamously let go from Spelling Television’s Beverly Hills, 90210. “[Aaron] […]
Doherty and Milano starred as Halliwell sisters Prue and Phoebe, respectively, alongside Holly Marie Combs (who played Piper) in Charmed. The series premiered in 1998, ending with its eighth season in 2006. Doherty left the show after season 3.
Earlier this year, the trio made headlines for their renewed feud. Doherty and Combs, 50, claimed on Doherty’s “Let’s Be Clear” podcast in December 2023 that Milano was behind Doherty’s firing.
“We didn’t mean to [fire Shannen], but we’ve been backed into this corner,” Combs recalled producer Jonathan Levin telling her at the time. “‘We’re basically in this position where it’s one or the other. We were told [by Alyssa] it’s her or [Shannen] and Alyssa has threatened to sue us for a hostile workplace environment.’”
Milano addressed the claims during a panel at Megacon in February. “I will just say that I’m sad. I don’t think it’s really that I’m sad for me or for my life or how it does or does not affect my life. I’m the most sad for the fans,” she told the audience. “I am the most sad that a show that has meant so much to so many people has been tarnished by a toxicity that is still to this day almost a quarter of a century later still happening.”
For Shannen Doherty, it was important to be “as honest as possible” about her fight against cancer. The actress first battled breast cancer between March 2015 and April 2017, and she revealed in February 2020 that the illness had returned. “It’s going to come out in a matter of days or a week that — […]
Milano added that she was upset that others “can’t move past” the drama. “When I think back to that time it was hard for me, and I have worked super hard in my life in the last 25 years to heal all of my trauma,” she said. “And that’s not just all the trauma that I experienced while shooting but all of my trauma. I’ve worked really hard to heal the bits because I understand that hurt people hurt people and my intention is to be a healed person that helps heal people.”
Milano issued a separate statement via social media, noting that she “did not have the power” to have Doherty fired.
“I don’t know one other show that has had the success that Charmed had where the cast still speaks ill of the experience a quarter of a century later. This is 15 movies and 13 TV shows ago for me,” Milano wrote via Instagram in February. “This was 11 years before my 15-year marriage and 13 years before having my first child. This was so long ago that any retelling of these stories from anyone is just revisionist history.”
Doherty addressed Milano’s response in a separate MegaCon panel for Charmed.
“At this point in my life, with my health diagnosis — sorry if I start crying — with fighting a horrific disease every day of my life, it is also incredibly important to me that the truth actually be told as opposed to the narrative that others put out there for me,” Doherty said. “There is no revisionist history happening in the truth that I know we told. There’s no brush flinging or shoe flinging. There is no lateness to set. There is no mediator for months on end.”
Doherty continued: “I recall the facts as if I were still living in them. And what I will say is that what somebody else may call ‘drama’ is an actual trauma for me, that I have been living through it for an extremely long time. And it is only through my battle with cancer that I decided to address this trauma and be open and honest about it so that I can actually heal from a livelihood that was taken from me, a livelihood that was taken away from my family, because someone else wanted to be No. 1 on the call sheet. That is the truth.”
