Shannen Doherty reveals she’s battling cancer again

The “Beverly Hills, 90210” alum, 48, who was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015, said Tuesday she has been privately living with cancer again during the past year. She did not specify what type of cancer she has.

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Shannen Doherty said Tuesday she has been privately living with cancer again during the past year.

Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Shannen Doherty, in an emotional “Good Morning America” sit down, revealed she’s battling stage 4 cancer, just several years after finishing treatment for breast cancer. 

The “Beverly Hills, 90210” alum, 48, who was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015, said Tuesday she has been privately living with cancer again during the past year. She did not specify what type of cancer she has. 

USA TODAY has reached out to her representative for further comment. 

”I don’t think that I’ve processed it,” Doherty told Amy Robach. “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.” 

The actress is in the midst of a lawsuit against State Farm over claims she was forced to pay out of pocket after her house was “severely damaged” in the 2018 Woolsey fire. She decided to come forward with her diagnosis because legal documents, which mention 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 said she worked on the “BH 90210” reboot last year amid her health struggles. Through tears, she said she decided to join the cast in part to pay tribute to the late Luke Perry and to be an example to others battling cancer.

”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.’ Our life doesn’t end the minute we get that diagnosis,” she added.

Brian Austin Green, who played David Silver on “90210,” was the only cast member who knew what Doherty was going through, she said. 

”Prior to shooting, he would always call me and say, ‘Listen: Whatever happens, I have your back,’” she recalled. 

The actress was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2015 and revealed to USA TODAY in August 2016 that it had spread to her lymph nodes. After a single mastectomy in 2016, she completed radiation and chemotherapy treatment in February 2017 and announced she was in remission two months later.

“The unknown is always the scariest part,” she told USA TODAY in 2016. “Is the chemo going to work? Is the radiation going to work? You know, am I going to have to go through this again, or am I going to get secondary cancer? Everything else is manageable. Pain is manageable, you know living without a breast is manageable, it’s the worry of your future and how your future is going to affect the people that you love.”

Over the summer, Doherty previously told USA TODAY at the Television Critics Association it’s impossible to “face something like cancer and not be a different person.”

”Not that I was that person to begin with,” she continued. “It just allowed me to maybe take down my walls a little bit to maybe show the softer side of who I am, but there’s none of that in the new ‘90210.’ “

Doherty said upon learning her cancer had returned, her first concern was how she was going to tell her family members. 

Speaking about her previous cancer battle, she told People in August 2019, “I don’t think you’re ever on the other side (of cancer). I don’t think about the fact that I’m in remission. I look at it like I’m lucky to be alive every minute, every second of the day.”

Contributing: Andrea Mandell, USA TODAY

Read more at USAToday.com

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