The actress spoke with ET about her new podcast, 'Let's Be Clear,' and her health journey.
Shannen Doherty is open to possibly looking for love once more.
ET's Rachel Smith spoke with the 52-year-old actress amid her stage 4 cancer battle -- which comes amid the launch of her new podcast, Let's Be Clear -- and she opened up about her difficult year.
"This year has been extremely tough for me. I've been thrown a lot of curveballs, and ones that I never expected in a million years," Doherty shared. "And not just with my cancer battle, but my personal life too. So it's been really hard."
Earlier this year, Doherty was informed that she had to undergo brain surgery after her cancer returned -- around the time that she learned of her then-husband Kurt Iswarienko's lengthy affair, and subsequently filed for divorce.
"It was, like, maybe two or three days apart," Doherty explained. "So, yeah, it was pretty brutal."
Despite the pain and emotional upheaval, the actress isn't shutting the door on the idea of finding love in the future.
"I've loved in the past, and even though it didn't work out, it was still really beautiful, and I learned a lot from the person and appreciated them," Doherty explained. "Even with the marriage that is now over, there were some great times."
Doherty and Iswarienko tied the knot in 2011. Doherty was previously married to Ashley Hamilton from 1993 to 1994 and Rick Salomon from 2002 to 2003.
"Just because it ended poorly, just because he made poor choices, and hurt me greatly, does not mean that every man is like that," Doherty said of Iswarienko. "My father was the most loyal, standup, honest, amazing human being that ever walked this earth. I believe that there are still men out there like that. I just didn’t find one this time around."
When it comes to the traits Doherty would be looking for in a man if she were to start dating again, she said, "Loyalty, honesty, humor."
"Please don't take yourself so seriously. It's not worth it and life is hard enough," she explained. "And just be present in the moment. I think all of that’s really important -- and intelligence."
Doherty also addressed past comments she's made about wanting children and to be a mom, but admitted that, due to her health battle, she isn't sure how she feels about the possbility.
"I have looked at adopting, and all sorts of different options. I think I struggle a lot with with my cancer diagnosis, and how fair it is," Doherty said. "I'm in treatment, and I'm gonna see if that treatment works. See what’s coming down the pipeline, what clinical trials, and if I feel like I can give a long enough time to a child, then I'll definitely do it."
In the meantime, Doherty is focusing a lot of her efforts on her new podcast, Let's Be Clear, and she detailed her intentions and goals for the project in a broad sense.
"I just hope that any industry -- whether it be the entertainment industry, whether it be banks, whether it be where people are getting jobs -- not look at people with stage 4 cancer, with which whatever kind of cancer it is, and count them out and say, 'Well, they're gonna get too tired,' or 'They're not gonna remember this,' or 'They’re gonna make mistakes,'" Doherty told ET of the goals for her podcast.
"I hope that they realize that people with cancer, really with any terminal disease, there's a level of appreciation for every second of every day of your life that you pay attention to detail even more," she continued. "I hope that they realize that... people that are sick like I am need to work desperately, because it's what helps us keep going forward."
On her podcast, Doherty plans to "get very personal," noting, "it's basically if someone wrote a memoir, I'm just doing an audio version where every week is sort of a new chapter if you will."
Shannen Doherty's Let's Be Clear, a new weekly live memoir podcast, is out now.
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