Shannen Doherty has been dropping truth bombs on her podcast. Which we obviously love.
But telling hard truths sometimes means looking at your own mistakes with a really honest lens. And we’re glad to say she’s doing that, too! After she and Holly Marie Combs claimed co-star Alyssa Milano was fully to blame for Shannen’s ousting from Charmed, this time, she’s taking full ownership for her firing from Beverly Hills 90210!
TV brother Jason Priestley stopped by the Let’s Be Clear podcast this time, and they eventually got to the touchy subject of Shannen’s firing from their hit TV show. And Shannen, now 52, admits it was on her. She began:
“I was in a really horrible marriage and there were things that were transpiring in that marriage that made it very hard for me to consistently be on time for work. And I know that that became a very big problem for the rest of you, as it should be.”
Shannen is, of course, talking about her marriage to Ashley Hamilton. The actor-musician has been pretty open about his drug problem from around that time — and the impact it had on his wife.
She realizes now in hindsight she should have been more open with everyone about what she was going through, why she maybe needed special consideration:
“I don’t think anybody knew that my father was super sick and I don’t think anybody knew that my husband was a massive drug addict… it was all consuming for me. I didn’t even want to leave the house because I was scared that he would go and get drugs.”
Her struggles meant, among other things, causing her co-stars to have to work longer days. So eventually she was written off the show, with her character going to school overseas. While Shannen takes accountability, she does make clear she wasn’t given an ultimatum, not an explicit one, before being let go:
“It wasn’t anybody’s responsibility by mine but I sort of wish I would have been sat down and sort of looked at and said, ‘Listen, the end result is going to be this, you are going to get fired and none of us are willing to put up with it anymore. And I understand that you have an issue in your personal life, but that also can’t bleed into work and you need to get your s**t together!’”
Yeah, at the time she had been in the industry a long time — but she was also only in her mid 20s and in some ways just didn’t know how to handle these really difficult subjects.
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Jason actually told her he felt guilty about not being more compassionate at the time, but Shannen quickly stopped him and said her behavior was no one’s fault but her own:
“Listen, I really take the blame for that. I don’t blame anyone else for what transpired and my ultimate firing. I do blame myself because I should have had my personal life more together, I should have left a relationship earlier, I shouldn’t have been going out. I got definitely affected by the attention and all of a sudden I could go into a night club and it didn’t matter how old I was, I found it all very alluring and seductive. And I fell into that trap then you add the personal issues.”
It’s so brave of her to talk really candidly about all of this. Hear the whole conversation for yourself (below):
[Image via The Kelly Clarkson Show/Beverly Hills 90210/YouTube.]
