Shannen Doherty revealed Tuesday morning that she is fighting stage 4 cancer.
During an interview with Good Morning America, the 90210 alum confirmed that she has been quietly living with cancer again for the past few years. The actress was first diagnosed with breast cancer back in 2015 and later revealed in 2016 that it had spread to her lymph nodes. Following a single mastectomy in 2016 and completing radiation and chemotherapy treatment in February 2017, Doherty announced she was in remission a couple of months later.
“I don’t think that I’ve processed it,” Doherty told Amy Robach during the GMA sit-down. “It’s a bitter pill to swallow in a lot of ways. I definitely have days where I say, ‘Why me?’ And then I go, ‘Well, why not me? Who else besides me deserves this?’ None of us do.”
.@ABC NEWS EXCLUSIVE: @DohertyShannen opens up about her private health battle. “I’m stage four – my cancer came back.”@arobachhttps://t.co/IvsAr3odaj pic.twitter.com/Amhcm7x5Q4
— Good Morning America (@GMA) February 4, 2020
The actress felt now was the right time to be open about her diagnoses due to the fact that she is currently in the midst of a lawsuit against State Farm (regarding claims she was forced to pay out of pocket for severe damage caused to her home during the Woosley fire in 2018) and legal documents which make note of her cancer will soon be made public ahead of the trial. “I’d rather people hear it from me,” she said. “I don’t want it to be twisted; I don’t want it to be a court document. I want it to be real and authentic and I want to control the narrative. I want people to know from me.”
Doherty was dealing with these health developments while shooting BH90210 last year, but opted to be part of the project to pay tribute to the late Luke Perry and to inspire others battling cancer too. “I thought… people can look at that and say, ‘Oh my God, yeah. She can work and other people with stage 4 can work, too.,'” she said. “Our life doesn’t end the minute we get that diagnosis.”
