“I was like, ‘Okay, do I have good karma?
Do I have bad karma?
Why would I have bad karma?’
I started taking stock of my life and the things I’d done, and the things I hadn’t
done.
How I was with people,”
If there’s one thing that’s followed Shannen Doherty around her entire life, it’s drama.
The actress has been fired from several projects because of her attitude and constant head-butting
with her co-stars.
She was labelled as “difficult to deal with” because whatever project she was working on,
she always somehow managed to stir the pot with someone else on set.
From feuds with other actors to numerous arrests, for a moment, it was almost as though she
was one of Hollywood’s most hated actresses.
After battling cancer for the second time, Doherty was forced to look back on her life
and her behaviour and realized that perhaps what was happening to her was karma.
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Shannen is probably most well known for her character of Brenda Walsh on the hit ‘90s
teen drama, “90210”.
But the actress was no stranger to life on set and had been working as an actor from
the tender age of eight.
However, she was put under a lot of pressure from her family after her mother suffered
from a brain aneurysm, and her father had a stroke and lost his job.
Though her parents both survived their health scares, the family was left with no income
and the pressure was on Shannen to support her family financially as a child actor at
just 10 years old.
Thanks to her talent, the young Shannen started booking guest spots in TV shows like Voyagers
and Airwolf.
It’s impossible to imagine the pressure she must have felt at such a young age to
be the breadwinner for her family.
She did whatever she could to make sure she was taken seriously and put everything she
had into all of her auditions.
From then she started to book more serious roles, and won an award for her part in Little
House On The Prairie.
Then came the big one, 90210.
Shannen was propelled into the spotlight and her new celebrity status was completely overwhelming.
By the third season of the show, she was a household name and the show was a hit.
Paparazzi were everywhere, and the actress couldn’t go anywhere without being swarmed
by flashing lights or screaming fans.
Despite having worked as an actress for many years, 90210 brought a new level of stardom
that Shannen had no idea how to handle.
Instant fame was really tough for the actress to come to terms with.
Fans would show up at her house uninvited.
She described waking up one morning to find Paparazzi trying to take pictures of her through
her bedroom window.
She bought a big guard dog that she could take with her wherever she went so that she
could feel more safe and prevent unwanted people away from her.
Even at the highschool where 90210 was being filmed, students would walk by her and call
her a “bitch” because they were incapable of separating Shannen from her role of Brenda.
It was perhaps during this time that Shannen also struggled to differentiate herself from
her role on the show and she started to rebel.
The actress had also never gotten the chance to really be a young and rebellious teenager
because she had worked her whole life in order to support her family.
It seems like the pressures of being a star and having her life in the spotlight were
starting to take a negative effect on the actress.
At the age of 21, she was being forced to grow up too soon and behave in a specific
way in the public eye.
She’d had enough of always being the good girl, and wanted to be more like Brenda who
didn’t care about what she said or did to other people.
She started to spend late nights out partying and drinking with her co-star and close friend,
Tori Spelling.
However, one night out quickly turned sour when Shannen was arrested and charged with
battery after getting into a fight at one of the nightclubs.
Soon, her name was all over the tabloids, and if there’s one thing that the press
can’t resist, it's a bad girl out on the loose.
Everything she did was being scrutinized by the press.
One evening she had even tried to run over a paparazzi with her car, who had been pestering
her the whole night.
Problems started to arise from every corner.
She was suddenly facing financial problems herself and was sued for writing over $31
000 worth of bad cheques, she wasn’t paying rent at her apartment, her credit cards were
being left unpaid.
Perhaps it was because the actress was tired of having to be the responsible one all the
time, and for once she didn’t want to have to be responsible for anything.
Not even herself.
It almost seemed as though Shannen didn’t care about anything anymore.Her biggest challenges
were only just beginning, and soon her rebellion started to take a toll on her career and love
life.
When Doherty met Dean Factor, it was an instant connection.
The couple got engaged after just a few short months of dating while they were both still
swooning over the bubble of their passionate romance.
Sadly, that bubble quickly exploded into violence and their hands that were once touching one
another with tenderness turned into angry fists of rage.
Dean would show up at work covered in scratches and bruises, and Shannen arrived on set one
day with a black eye.
The violence turned so bad between the two that after calling off their engagement, Dean
ordered a restraining order from Shannen, claiming that she had pulled a loaded gun
on him and said “I’ll drop you.”
She had also thrown a log through his window to get into his house and allegedly attempted
to run him over with her car.
Naturally the tabloids ate up everything they could about the story and labelled Shannen
“Out of control”.
Her reputation was being dragged through the mud, but she didn’t let on that it was affecting
her one bit.
The actress continued with her role on 90210, and seemed as though nothing had happened.
In fact, Shannen quickly moved on to dating actor Ashley Hammelton, and after just two
weeks they got married.
It was as though she was seeking solace from all the constant drama in finding a man that
would love her and perhaps ground her or give her a reason to slow down.
Amidst all the constant tabloid drama, Shannen just wanted a man to love and settle down
with and desperately hoped that Ashley was the one.
Tension soon started to rise on the set of 90210, with Shannen often at the center of
the problem.
She would arrive late on set, not know her lines and stirred fights with other actors
on the show.
Years later she even admitted “There’s no other word for it, I was an asshole.”
Eventually producer of the show, Aaron Spelling, who was also Tori Spelling’s father, wouldn’t
tolerate Shannen’s attitude and tardiness any longer.
He called the actress in for a meeting and told her that her time on the show was done
and her character would be written off.
Doherty brushed it off like it was no big deal, and said that leaving the show would
be best for her anyway cause she wanted to focus more on her marriage and move on to
bigger and better projects.
But the show fans were not fooled by Shannen’s departure, and while Producer Spelling never
disclosed the details of their meeting to the public, everyone knew that it was the
actress’ behaviour that brought her time on the hit show to an end.
Unfortunately, her relationship with Ashley came to an end too after just 195 days of
marriage.
She was outspoken, demanded what she wanted and competitive, especially with her fellow
co-star, Jennie Garth.
In hindsight, perhaps Shannen was deemed as “difficult to work with” and a “primadonna”
because she was an outspoken woman on set, and back in the ‘90s it was men who had
the final say.
She knew what she wanted and she wouldn’t accept any less, so people who worked with
her found her stubborn.
But does that make her a diva, or a strong woman that people didn’t know how to handle?
During that time, not only actresses but women in general didn’t have much of a say in
the work-space.
They were supposed to do what they were told and do it with a smile on their face.
They were supposed to be sweet, well behaved, vulnerable, innocent and not give their own
opinions.
So when Doherty was doing the exact opposite of that, she was labelled a diva, rather than
a strong woman.
The following years after 90210, the actress’ career fluctuated.
She was briefly engaged to Rob Weis for two years, but sadly that was just as fleeting
as her previous relationships.
Finally, just as Doherty was beginning to fear that she was fading into the background,
she was cast in the TV show, Charmed.
She played the role of the older sister of three, Prue alongside fellow actresses Alyssa
Milano and Holly Marie Combs.
The show was a huge hit, and fans fell in love with the three Halliwell witch sisters.
At first, it seemed that the three actresses were getting along well.
Unfortunately, the set of Charmed was soon tainted with drama and Doherty often clashed
with her co-star Milano.
After three seasons, Alyssa approached the producers of the show and said that if Doherty
wasn’t going to leave the show, she would.
So, once again Doherty’s character was written off the show and the actress was asked to
leave.
Following the arrest for driving under the influence, another failed marriage this time
to Rick Salomon, and an attempt at a reality TV show that was cancelled after only one
season, Doherty’s career stalled and it seemed like she had nowhere left to go.
Thankfully, in 2011 things started to take a more positive turn when she met photographer
Kurt Iswarienko, they married and he seemed to ground Shannen in a way no one else had
managed to do.
Something had changed in the actress, and everyone else could see it too.
"If you watch you're going to see that it's an incredibly different relationship.
[Ours] wasn't a quickie marriage,"
Tragically in 2015, Doherty announced that she was battling breast cancer.
"The unknown is always the scariest part.
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?"
Sadly, Doherty's fear of secondary cancer came true and after three years in remission,
she was fighting the same battle yet again.
"I definitely have days where I say why me.
And then I go, well, why not me?
Who else?
Who else besides me deserves this?
None of us do."
There’s no doubt that Shannen has had to face numerous scandals in her life, but if
there’s one thing she has admitted it’s that fighting the life-threatening battle
with cancer has changed who she is for the better.
She’s been able to look back at her life and make amends with those she hurt, and rekindle
relationships with co-stars from her previous shows.
Shannen has no bad blood and for now is taking the time to focus on her health and spending
time with her family.
She’s fought this battle before, and she can do it again because Shannen takes no prisoners!