The Tragic True Life Story Of Shannen Doherty

Shannen Doherty, who died from cancer in July 2024 at the age of 53, was a huge television star in the early 1990s. One of the leading cast members of "Beverly Hills, 90210," she quickly became a household name and looked set to have a stellar career in Hollywood, but things didn't quite pan out like that. She found herself at the center of several controversies during and after her time on the show, which made job offers increasingly rare.

While she is often considered to be a stereotypical Hollywood bad girl who brought her career decline on herself with some self-destructive actions, the reality is that Doherty suffered through a lot of sad events and misfortunes during her early years in the business. In fact, many of the things she experienced as a young star would be enough to send even the strongest of performers into a tailspin. From her turbulent love life and famous on-set feuds to her cancer battle and tragic passing, this is Doherty's heartbreaking story.

Shannen Doherty quickly established a reputation as a bad girl in Hollywood because she partied hard and wasn't afraid to speak her mind if you got on her wrong side. Doherty spoke to People in 1992 when she was at the height of her "Beverly Hills, 90210" fame to explain how her out of control behavior began when she was just 18 and living with a much older boyfriend. "I was drinking up a storm," she said. "Cocaine was something that I tried and didn't really like. It was more the lifestyle I was into. Every single night I was out clubbing and drinking. It was a bad scene."

According to Doherty, this destructive cycle went on for around six months. Her volatile relationship came to an end after her boyfriend (who had told her he was 28 despite actually being in his 30s) slapped her. With that, she knew it was time to get out. Doherty returned to her parents, though she struggled to stay out of trouble in the years that followed. The actor was hit with a DUI in her 20s, which was a real wake-up call. "It's the most humiliating, embarrassing, disgraceful moment of my life," she would later say during an appearance on the Today show. "It's shameful."

Shannen Doherty's DUI in 2001 was not her first brush with the law. The first incident occurred in 1992 when she got into a fight with fellow actor Bonita Money in a Los Angeles nightclub. The scrap allegedly took place after Doherty's date (fellow "Beverly Hills, 90210" star Brian Austin Green) stood on the toes of Money's boyfriend. Doherty was struck in the face during the altercation, and both she and Money were cited for misdemeanor battery. According to Green, Doherty was not in the wrong. "Shannen did nothing and she was the bad girl," he told Entertainment Weekly. "The other person totally started it."

Five years later, Doherty was arrested and charged following another incident at a West Hollywood bar: It was alleged that the actor smashed a beer bottle on a man's car window. According to Deputy District Attorney Ellen Aragon (via the Los Angeles Times), the victim was seemingly "a stranger to her, and whether they had some words or she was confusing him with someone else, she followed him out to his car and struck his car with a beer bottle." An agreement meant that Doherty was able to plead no contest to a vandalism charge and had a more serious accusation of assault with a deadly weapon dropped.

In the early 1990s, Shannen Doherty was in a short relationship with Dean Factor (an heir to Max Factor, the business owner and founder of the eponymous cosmetics brand). He has since gone on to become a successful entrepreneur in his own right with the company Smashbox Beauty Cosmetics. Yet, despite the fact that the pair were engaged, the relationship ended in acrimony in 1993 with Factor filing for a restraining order. According to reports from the time, Factor took the legal action because he feared for his safety: He alleged that Doherty had been violent and made threats toward him.

Writing in a petition to the Superior Court of California (via People), Factor claimed that Doherty had threatened to shoot him and hit him with a car, causing him to fear for his life. The petition stated: "I was weary of the verbal assaults and locked myself in our bathroom. At this point she threatened to shoot me and said, 'I'm going to drop you!' I knew she had a loaded 9-mm automatic.... I heard the chamber pulled back; at that point, I hastily exited the house through a back door connected to the bathroom and escaped." The situation was eventually settled without the need for the court to be involved as Factor and Doherty reached an agreement after the petition was filed.

From her first major role in "Beverly Hills, 90210," Shannen Doherty developed a reputation for being difficult to work with. Show creator Darren Star said that the actor was "a handful" during an interview with the Television Academy, while executive producer Charles Rosin told Entertainment Weekly: "Her lateness was appalling, and she had a callous attitude and an indifference." Meanwhile, Doherty was also known for her fights with co-stars and notably had a long-running feud with Jennie Garth that descended into violence on at least one occasion. Many members of the cast were apparently happy to see Doherty depart in 1994 as she was simply an actor everyone hated working with.

For her part, Doherty doesn't believe she was a menace on set but rather someone who was prepared to defend herself and ensure she was heard. "If you consider 'difficult' being a strong woman who sticks up for herself, yeah, I admit to it," she told Rolling Stone. "I'm open to different ideas, but if you get on my bad side and don't listen to me and you don't treat me with as much respect as you treat a man, you've got a problem." Whatever the case, there's little denying that Shannen Doherty and Jennie Garth of "Beverly Hills, 90210" had serious beef. 

Although Shannen Doherty was engaged to Dean Factor, that relationship broke down before the pair could wed. Her first marriage was actually to American actor and singer Ashley Hamilton. The pair had only been dating for a few weeks when they got married in 1993. Doherty was only 22 at the time of the celebration, while Hamilton was just 18. The whirlwind romance even led to her fellow actors on "Beverly Hills, 90210" betting on whether the marriage would last 10 weeks.

The wedding took place on September 24, 1993. Doherty's garden was used for the event and they flew to New York just a few hours later so that she could host "Saturday Night Live." The marriage only lasted five months and Doherty has since spoken about how difficult the experience was. Talking on her "Let's Be Clear" podcast in 2024, the actor said that Hamilton was a drug addict and she spent much of her time trying to prevent him from acquiring more drugs. Doherty filed for a divorce in April 1994 citing irreconcilable differences, with the move coming after she was fired from "Beverly Hills, 90210."

It wasn't just her off-screen antics and on-set behavior that held Shannen Doherty back: The actor also faced some medical problems that likely made acting more difficult. She was diagnosed with Crohn's disease in 1999 and had seemingly been struggling with it for some time. Speaking to Star Magazine (via More Magazine), Doherty explained the effects that Crohn's disease had on her life and self-image. She said: "It can kind of mess with you. There's nothing sexy about women saying: 'I've got to go to the bathroom right now.'"

According to the Cleveland Clinic, Crohn's is "a type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that causes your digestive tract to become swollen and irritated. If you have Crohn's, you might experience symptoms like abdominal pain, diarrhea, weight loss and rectal bleeding. This is a lifelong condition that can't be cured." There are a variety of treatments that can help people with Crohn's live a regular life and some people don't experience symptoms for several years at a time, though flare-ups can come out of nowhere.

Following her firing from "Beverly Hills, 90210," Shannen Doherty found work harder to come by. She had a starring role in the Kevin Smith comedy film "Mallrats" but she believed it killed her movie career, as it was a commercial failure. Her appearances following that were mainly in made-for-TV movies until she was cast in a new show called "Charmed." Doherty portrayed Prue Halliwell, the eldest of three witch sisters who set out to protect the world from evil. Prue was killed off during the season three finale, ending Doherty's time on the popular series. The decision to remove the actor from the show was not necessarily just a story development.

So what's the real reason Shannen Doherty left "Charmed" behind? Producers reportedly parted ways with Doherty because of her fractious relationship with co-star Alyssa Milano. Things got so bad that Milano apparently approached the creators to demand that they either fire her or Doherty. The story about Doherty leaving of her own free will was concocted by her team, the actor would later confirm. "My representatives, I remember them looking at me at the time and said, 'No, no, no, your career won't survive another firing, so we're just going to say that you chose to leave,'" Doherty revealed on her podcast (via Variety). "I remember I started laughing, going, 'Who is going to believe that I'm crazy enough to leave a hit show?'"

Shannen Doherty's second marriage was to Rick Salomon, a professional poker player who is probably best known for his infamous sex tape with Paris Hilton. The pair tied the knot in 2002 but the marriage only lasted nine months, with the two celebs deciding to have it annulled. Doherty told Details magazine (via People) that she hadn't always made the best choices when it came to choosing a partner. "I was madly in love," she said. "It was a really hard marriage. When it ended, it was a heart-crushing thing."

In an episode of the "Let's Be Clear" podcast, Doherty and Salomon discussed the marriage and why it ended so quickly. Their romance emerged from a conversation in a car ride and the two traveled to Las Vegas for a wedding ceremony that involved no guests. Doherty subsequently explained that Salomon had a drug problem that impacted their relationship. Salomon has had similar luck to Doherty when it comes to marriage: He had high-profile weddings to both Elizabeth Daily and Pamela Anderson that didn't work out.

2010 saw Shannen Doherty compete on "Dancing with the Stars," partnered with former champion Mark Ballas. Her time on the show came to an early end when she and Ballas were eliminated first (unfairly in the opinion of some Redditors). However, she still considered it an achievement because it allowed her father to see her perform. Her dad had suffered a stroke the previous year and could no longer speak.

Talking to Us Weekly, Doherty explained how much it meant to have her father in the audience for her "Dancing with the Stars" performances. "It was beyond emotional," she said after one show. "It was amazing to have him here. I had eye connection with him throughout my routine and to see the pride and the love in his face was overwhelming to me. He is determined to come back every Monday, and it's been great for him tonight."

Sadly, Doherty's father died that same year, passing away in November 2010. She was always close with her mother and father, and she opened up about how much she missed the latter on what would have been his birthday in 2023. "I miss him everyday," she posted to Instagram. "This year has been one for the books and I desperately wish he was here to help guide me. He always gave me the strength I needed to do what needed to be done."

One of the most tragic moments in Shannen Doherty's life happened in March 2015 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Making matters worse was that the cancer had spread to lymph nodes. Doherty later explained that her employer had failed to make health insurance payments on time, a situation that led to the cancer being diagnosed later than it should have been, giving the disease time to spread.

The presence of cancerous cells in her lymph nodes meant that aggressive treatment was necessary. Doherty had a mastectomy along with radiotherapy and chemotherapy, which successfully led to the actor going into remission in 2017. However, the cancer returned in 2019 and was more advanced than before, with doctors diagnosing her with stage four breast cancer. By 2023, the cancer had spread to her brain, as she bravely revealed in an emotional Instagram post.

2018 saw Shannen Doherty suffer from a very different kind of tragedy when her house was destroyed by the Woolsey Fire. According to the National Park Service, the Woolsey Fire was a destructive fire that spread across the Santa Monica area, burning around 100,000 acres of land over the course of two weeks. Thousands of buildings were damaged or destroyed during the wildfire, including a number of celebrity homes. These included houses belonging to Miley Cyrus and Gerard Butler.

Doherty posted about the loss on Instagram, stating: "I'm devastated by all that's happening. My heart is ripped apart." The actor had to take her insurer State Farm to court in order to force the company to pay out for the damage. In a lawsuit filed in federal court, a jury agreed with her lawyers that State Farm had failed to pay an adequate amount for no justifiable reason. They awarded Doherty $6.3 million to cover the destruction of her home as well as legal fees and emotional distress.

Shannen Doherty had been open about the fact that she was interested in starting a family before her cancer diagnosis. Speaking to PR in 2012, Doherty said that she wanted children in the future, but was enjoying being a newlywed. However, the treatment she began after her first cancer diagnosis had made it impossible for her to get pregnant. She told Health that "the hormones I went on threw my body into menopause instantly" and that she was unwilling to take estrogen as it potentially carries an increased risk of the cancer recurring.

Of course, that didn't prevent Doherty and her then husband from adopting or having a surrogate mother. In the same interview, Doherty revealed that she wanted to be sure that her cancer was gone for good before committing to a family. "But there's fear there," she said. "Am I going to last five years? Ten years? I certainly wouldn't want my 10-year-old burying a mother. I've always wanted a kid. But maybe I'm supposed to mother in a different way."

Shannen Doherty married for a third time in 2011 to the photographer Kurt Iswarienko. Speaking to PR, the actor explained that the pair met when Doherty was shooting a magazine cover. She had specifically asked for him after seeing previous work. Two months later they met up again for work and immediately felt that they were compatible and that the timing was right. She went on to say: "It was an instant thing and we were together from that point on."

Her marriage to Iswarienko was her longest: They were together for 11 years before Doherty filed for divorce. Releasing a statement to Today, a spokesperson for Doherty said: "Divorce is the last thing Shannen wanted. Unfortunately, she felt she was left with no other option." While no exact reason was given for the divorce, Doherty later claimed that Iswarienko was purposely withholding financial information to delay the divorce until she had died from the cancer — something he strenuously denied. The pair reached an agreement for the divorce on July 12, just a day before she died.

Shannen Doherty died from cancer on July 13, 2024 at the age of 53. Reports confirmed that she was living at her home in Malibu at the time. The sad news brought an outpouring of grief from Doherty's former colleagues, including "Charmed" star Alyssa Milano. "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 told People. "She was a talented actress, beloved by many and the world is less without her. My condolences to all who loved her."

Dorian Gregory, Brian Krause, Drew Fuller, and Ted King all spoke out, as did Rose McGowan, who replaced her on "Charmed." McGowan called her "A soft-hearted badass as there ever was." Doherty's former "Beverly Hills, 90201" co-stars also reacted to her death, recalling how she was a true force of nature. Tori Spelling called her "a rebel in an era when most women didn't feel comfortable being strong," while Jennie Garth described Doherty as "one of the strongest people I have ever known."