Published Dec 10, 2023

Shannen Doherty, 52, Recounts Pushing Back On ‘90210’ Producers & Learning The ‘Simple Art Of Diplomacy’– Now The Remarkable Resilience In Face of Cancer

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Living With Metastatic Breast Cancer

Shannen Doherty is currently living with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer, meaning it has spread to other areas of her body. But as she explained in her recent podcast episode, the actress is no stranger to a challenge. As Doherty rose to fame playing Brenda Walsh in the 1990s teen TV hit show “Beverly Hills, 90210,” she wasn’t scared to speak her mind and push back at the producers.
Doherty was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. It went into remission in 2017 but returned as stage 4 (or metastatic) in 2019. Metastatic cancer means the disease has spread to distant areas of the body, like the bones, liver, lungs, or brain. This year, her continued battle with cancer involved surgery and radiation.
Metastatic breast cancer also called “stage four” breast cancer means that the cancer has spread, or metastasized, beyond the breasts to other parts of the body. There is technically no cure, but advancements in treatments can dramatically improve outcomes and that is something to be hopeful for.
Resilience is an important trait to have in the face of adversity such as cancer. SurvivorNet spotlighted this important cancer-fighting trait in the film “Resilience,” now streaming on SurvivorNet. It follows the lives of three athletes who are living with a health challenge yet overcame adversity.

“Beverly Hills, 90210” actress Shannen Doherty is the embodiment of strength as she continues on her journey with metastatic breast cancer—and it seems her ability to adapt and stay strong through adversity is a quality she’s always had.

Doherty, who is battling stage four breast cancer amid divorce from her long-time husband Kurt Iswarienko, recounted in her newly launched podcast “Let’s Be Clear with Shannen Doherty,” how she stood up for herself, spoke her mind, and pushed back at the male producers of “Charmed” and “90210.”

Doherty was regular cast member on the 1990s teen TV hit show “Beverly Hills, 90210,” where she portrayed Brenda Walsh on the show, which is centered around a group of teenage friends living in Beverly Hills, California, navigating high school and college. She also starred in “Charmed” during the 1990s.

Shannen Doherty initially made a name for herself playing Brenda Walsh on ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’

She explained on her podcast’s first full length episode, “I think that growing up on TV in the 90s as a woman was very different than it is currently and I’d like to say that some of us paved the way, and women are taking such huge strides in the world currently. And certainly in TV, I think being on ‘90210’ and being someone who didn’t necessarily play by the rules.

“I didn’t placate the men in my business and I certainly didn’t placate my boss. I fought them … and then goes back to the way that I was raised. My dad, by far the most amazing man that’s every walked this earth, who I miss and love every single second of the day, he was adamant of me being a very strong, intelligent woman who stood up for myself. And my mom was the same way.”

Praising her parents for being “big on education” and knowing the importance of being able to “carry on, conduct an intelligent conversation and be well informed, she talked about how filmmaker Michael Landen was one of the first people to tell her, “Listen, they’ll walk all over you in this business being a women. Don’t let them. Stand up for yourself.”

She continued, “So I did, and it caused a lot of issues back then. Some issues I caused for myself. I was young and I wanted to go out and I didn’t see any problem going to a nightclub at 20-years-old with Brian Torey and Marky Mark. I didn’t see where it was bad and sometimes my behavior would get a little carried away. I think that’s kind of normal for someone in their early, early, early 20s, but I could have done better for sure.”

Shannen Doherty (center) played “Prue” on the series, “Charmed.” (Image source: The Whisp).

Looking back on “the good” she can take from her learning experiences, Doherty said, “Being a strong women and going up against someone like Aaron Spelling and E. Duke Vincent, people who were huge producers back then … legacy of people, huge producers, that as a young woman, to go up against them and say, ‘Hey, you know, this script isn’t very good and it’s not great quality, we can do better.’ And for people to say to me, ‘You’re not hired to think, you’re hired to hit your mark and set your lines and act.’

“That’s the kind of stuff that really rubbed me personally the wrong way because I wasn’t raised that way. I was raised to think, I was raised to have an opinion and my opinion should be valued. So I just kept pressing up against that machine. Up against men who didn’t want to hear my opinion. And I didn’t stop. I carried that throughout my career and I carried that through ‘Charmed.'”

‘Adversity And The Art of Happiness:’ How Hardship Makes You Even Stronger

“I think the difference between me then and me now, or when I got into my 40s rather, is that I learned the simple art of diplomacy. I learned that there might be a nicer way to say some things,” Doherty explained.

“There might be a more diplomatic spin that I could take. I also learned to stay at home. I learned to really cultivate my space to be healthy and a space that I actually wanted to spend time in. And to surround myself with friends that had my back and were incredibly supportive.”

How to be Resilient in the Face of Adversity

Doherty’s experience working for men in the world of TV and her health journey have both had an impact on strengthening her resilience in the face of adversity.

She’s been hit with tough cancer treatments and a divorce this year alone. However, she’s still keeps an optimistic outlook on life.

Resilience is an important trait to have in the face of adversity such as cancer.

WATCH: Resilience: Staying Positive Despite Adversity

SurvivorNet spotlighted this important cancer-fighting trait in the film “Resilience,” now streaming on SurvivorNet. It follows the lives of three athletes who are living with a health challenge yet overcame adversity.

You can build resilience the way you build muscle, through patience and steady exercise of the skill. Here are some lessons taken from Fischer, Runkel, and Soller:

Be willing to learn. If one way doesn’t work, find a different way. If an obstacle lands in your way, build a path around it, or over it.
Spend time with people who inspire you.
Allow yourself to grieve. Don’t push away or dismiss your frustration and sadness. Give yourself grace when your emotions run high.
Be flexible. Understand there are multiple ways to accomplish a goal. If your original method does not work, find another.
Lean into your community. Consider using your support group made up of your friends, colleagues, and family. Remember when you’re feeling stressed or overwhelmed by a problem, their support can carry you.

It’s important to remember that battling cancer comes with a wife range of emotions. These can range from “anxiety, depression, financial toxicity, social isolation, and PTSD,” SurvivorNet expert and researcher at Moffitt Cancer Center, Dr. Shelly Tworoger, previously explained.

Psychologist Dr. Marianna Strongin also spoke SurvivorNet in an earlier interview, sharing some simple tips to help you maintain good mental health and reduce stress amid adversity.

When it comes to dealing with anxiety, Dr. Strongin says it’s important to have a healthy relationship with your anxiety and get to know it rather than fear it, avoid it, or push it away.

“By learning more about your anxious thoughts and tendencies, one can begin to answer their anxious thoughts even in moments when there aren’t any answers. For cancer patients, the worry thoughts tend to be, ‘Will I survive?’

“It’s important to let those thoughts come in and really be able to tolerate them before answering them. This is a very powerful coping skill.” Dr. Strongin explained.

Dr. Strongin suggests medications to help with anxiety and depression if other approaches are not as effective. She also urges cancer warriors to explore telemedicine.

Shannen Doherty’s Cancer Battle

Shannen Doherty first received a breast cancer diagnosis in 2015 after she discovered a lump in her breast. For treatments the first time around, she underwent hormone therapy, a single mastectomy (the removal of all breast tissue from one breast), chemotherapy and radiation.

Sometimes Bad Things Happen — Enjoying Life, Even With Cancer

Then in 2017, Doherty was deemed to be in remission, however, the cancer returned just two years later in 2019 as metastatic, or stage four, breast cancer.

There is technically no cure for metastatic breast cancer, but that doesn’t mean people can’t live good, long lives with this stage of disease, thanks to hormone therapy, chemotherapy, targeted drugs and immunotherapy, as well as a combination of treatments.

Doherty took to Instagram earlier this year to recap how her cancer fight is going. She underwent her first round of radiation to her head on Jan. 12, 2023, followed by brain surgery to remove and biopsy a tumor on Jan. 16, 2023. The surgery she underwent is called a craniotomy.

Gabrielle Carteris, Brian Austin Green, Shannen Doherty, Ian Ziering and Jennie Garth of ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’ speak at a 2019 event (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)

Several neurosurgeons tell SurvivorNet that the procedure can allow patients with cancer in their brain to live longer, more vibrant lives, and this appears to be the case with Doherty who has recently been taken to Instagram to share photos and videos of her recent Italian getaway

Understanding Stage 4 (Metastatic) Breast Cancer

Stage 4, or metastatic breast cancer, means that the cancer has spread to distant areas of the body. Even though there is currently no cure for metastatic breast cancer, doctors have many options to treat this stage advanced stage of breast cancer. Shannen Doherty is a perfect example as to how people can live happily despite battling the disease.

Hormone therapy, chemotherapy and targeted drugs are all options to talk to her doctor about, depending on your individual needs. Sometimes surgery and/or radiation is considered as part of the treatment, but mainly it is important to focus on improving your quality of life.

The treatment plan for metastatic breast cancer patients depends on the specific needs of the woman, whether they need an aggressive chemotherapy or depending on the doctor’s assessment, they may benefit from another medication.

For hormone receptive positive cancer breast cancer patients, doctors try to see how long they can keep patients on oral therapies. Very often, newly diagnosed metastatic hormone receptive-positive breast cancers (where cells have either estrogen (ER) or progesterone (PR) receptors or both) respond best with different hormonal medications, and sometimes for many many years.

Treating Metastatic Breast Cancer

Dr. Erica Mayer, a medical oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, says clinical trials have shown that hormone medicines are more effective when paired with targeted therapies. At some point, chemotherapy will be introduced. And according to Dr. Mayer, it’s delivered at a dose and schedule that’s as well-tolerated as possible.

“We are so lucky in breast cancer that we have so many effective and well-tolerated treatments,” Dr. Mayer tells SurvivorNet. I’m so gratified to see that patients are doing better and living longer today with metastatic breast cancer than they have ever done before.”

Bottom line, there are more and more options becoming available for patients to manage symptoms of advanced stage disease, and it’s best to talk about specific treatment plans and what is best for you with your own doctor.

Do You Have HER2-Positive Metastatic Breast Cancer? Here’s A Breakdown Of Some Of Your Treatment Options

Understanding Growth & Aging

It’s understandable that aging can feel like a mystery at times. After all, we’ve all heard phrases like “Age is just a number,” but what does that mean? And how does it impact our health and well-being?

From the day we are born, our bodies and minds start to change and grow, something Shannen Doherty is spoke about in her recent podcast episode, as she understand how much she’s changed over the years. This continuous process is, fundamentally, what we call ‘aging.’ Life is a journey filled with countless changes, and aging is an integral part of that journey. Quite often, when we talk about aging, we focus on the physical changes, but it’s also about the evolution of our mental and emotional states.

SurvivorNet has provided an overview of aging to guide you through this universal process.

Some key points to remember about aging:

Aging is a natural biological process that affects everyone.
The experience of aging can vary greatly among individuals.
While aging comes with some inevitable changes, many aspects of aging are influenced by lifestyle choices and attitudes.
With the right information, support, and proactive strategies, aging can be a rich and fulfilling stage of life.
Aging isn’t something to fear or shy away from—it’s a phase of life that we all share.

Healthy aging isn’t just about accomplishing medical check-ups or managing illnesses. It’s also about maintaining a high quality of life as you age, keeping your body and mind as robust as possible, and living life to the fullest. SurvivorNet has put together some tips that can help you age healthily:

Physical Activity: Try to incorporate at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise into your daily routine. This could be walking, cycling, swimming—any physical activity you enjoy!

Nutrition: Eat a balanced diet heavy on fruits, vegetables, lean protein, and whole grains. Limiting processed foods, sugars and unhealthy fats can make a big difference in your overall health.

Social Engagement: Stay socially active like Shannen Doherty does. Whether it’s attending family gatherings, participating in group hobbies, volunteering, or just catching up with friends, maintaining social connections can significantly enhance your emotional health and well-being.

Mental Stimulation: Engage in activities that stimulate your mind. This could include reading, doing puzzles, learning a new skill or language, or even playing memory-boosting games.

Regular Check-ups: Don’t forget about your regular medical, dental, and eye check-ups. Prevention is always better than cure!

Sleep: Good sleep is vital for your overall health. Practice good sleep hygiene – keep a regular sleep schedule, make your sleeping environment comfortable and quiet, and try to avoid screens before bed.

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Remember, consistency is the key. Building these habits and making them part of your daily routine can potentially slow down the aging process and improve your overall well-being. Even small steps can have a significant impact, so it’s never too late to start. After all, aging is just another word for living. And our aim should not be to just live longer, but to live healthier and happier.