Beverly Hills 90210 star Shannen Doherty has revealed that her cancer has returned.
In an interview with ABC News that aired on Good Morning America this week, the 48-year-old actress, who is best known for her role as Brenda Walsh in the iconic eighties hit TV show Beverly Hills 90210, revealed that her breast cancer had returned and it was at stage four.
“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,” she revealed on the show. “I don’t think I’ve processed it. It’s a bitter pill to swallow in a lot of ways.”
“I definitely have days where I say, ‘Why me?’ ” Doherty continued. “And then I go, well, ‘Why not me? Who else? Who else besides me deserves this?’ None of us do.”
The Charmed star was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 and announced in 2017 that she was in remission.
Only last year Doherty’s friend and co-star Luke Perry passed away after suffering from a stroke, and Doherty spoke this week about how “shocking” it had been to have been “diagnosed and then somebody who was, you know, seemingly healthy… go first”.
For that reason she said she didn’t tell people, to begin with, about the cancer returning.
Last year Doherty was involved in the TV reboot of Beverly Hills, 90210, and she said part of the reason she did the show was to honour Perry, as well as show others that you can still work if you want to despite cancer.
“I thought, people can look at that [as] people with stage 4 can work too,” she explained.
“Our life doesn’t end the minute we get that diagnosis. We still have some living to do.”
In previous interviews Doherty has said that cancer has helped her open herself up to be more vulnerable with others.
She told Yahoo Entertainment, “I used to have a big wall around me and it was quite hard for me to let people in, and I found that cancer just ripped that wall completely down.”
“Of course, you’re sitting there, hooked up to an IV and you’re getting chemo and you’re throwing up and, you know, you really have to count on the people around you,” she said, “whether it be family or the nurse who’s administering [treatment], or the patient next to you who’s going through the same thing, who’s like holding your hand through it. It just opens your heart, at least it did for me.”
She also told Yahoo that cancer has “solidified everything for me of what I should feel about myself and where my priorities should be”.
She was no longer spending time trying to prove her worth to others and was instead doing more of what she needs to feel happy and fulfilled.
In New Zealand mammograms are free to women aged 45 and older through Breast Screening Aotearoa. Women are also encouraged to self-check their breasts regularly.
