Shannen Doherty is currently battling stage 4 cancer. She filed for divorce in April 2023 after 11 years of marriage.
Shannen Doherty is requesting that her estranged husband, Kurt Iswarienko, pay her spousal support amid their divorce, citing that her future residual income "will dramatically decrease" when her show, Charmed, is yanked from streaming platforms later this month.
According to court documents obtained by ET, the 53-year-old actress wants the court to order Iswarienko to fork over $15,434 per month in spousal support, retroactive to June 1. She also requests that the court order him to contribute $9,100 in attorney's fees and other costs.
Doherty, who filed the paperwork in Los Angeles County Superior Court on June 14, wants the support payments to be collateralized with community property assets, including their Texas ranch, Mooney M20 airplane and airplane hangar in Camarillo, California, where the airplane is stored.
The Beverly Hills, 90210 star states in court documents that the majority of her residual income is from the Constance M. Burge-created fantasy drama WB series that aired 178 episodes across eight seasons from 1998 to 2006. She claims that she "recently learned that Charmed will no longer be streaming on any major streaming platform after June 30, 2024. As a result, my future residual income will dramatically decrease."
Doherty, who is currently battling stage 4 cancer, says her year-to-date income is $25,732. She hasn't worked since 2022, "whereas, in 2024, alone, Kurt has traveled to at least South Africa and Thailand for photography jobs," she claims.
"While I have been unable to work, incurring exorbitant medical expenses not covered by insurance to undergo experimental treatments in hopes of prolonging my life, Kurt has been utilizing the airplane, spending thousands of dollars at medical spas, jewelry stores, Gucci, and on flights for his 'agent,' while simultaneously claiming that he has insufficient funds with which to support me," Doherty states in her 305-page court filing.
She claims Iswarienko, whom she filed to divorce from in April 2023 after 11 years of marriage, made an average of $672,916 per year over the last three years of their marriage, while her average annual earnings for the last three years of their marriage equaled $259,708.
Doherty says Iswarienko made a name for himself in the industry in the latter part of the marriage as a notable photographer who worked for the likes of Netflix, Hulu, FX, Amazon Studios, among others.
"Although Kurt's income is substantially more than mine, he has not made any temporary spousal support payments and has made no contributions to my attorneys' or accounting fees and costs since the time our divorce action was filed," Doherty claims in court documents.
She goes on to say that her monthly expenses exceed $54,600. In 2023, her medical expenses alone, she claims, amounted to $21,640.
"Because I have not worked this year, I will no longer be eligible for SAG Health Insurance and this number will dramatically increase," she added in court documents.
She claims "there are two issues impending the resolution of our divorce: (1) Kurt's unwillingness to pay an appropriate amount of spousal support, and (2) Kurt's failure to disclose information regarding his photographic works."
Doherty was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. Just two years later, she thought she was in remission. But she says she learned in 2019 that her breast cancer had metastasized as stage 4 in her brain and bones, rendering her an incurable cancer.
"Since 2019, I have undergone a myriad of cancer treatments, including brain surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and experimental treatments and protocols," she states in court documents. "At first, some of the treatments seemed to work. However, in 2023, I learned that my latest treatment was no longer effective. On January 16, 2023, I underwent brain surgery for my metastasized breast cancer. On January 15, 2023, the day before my brain surgery, I told Kurt in no uncertain terms that I did not want him present at my surgery and that I would be filing for divorce."
She says she filed for divorce when she "sufficiently recovered" from her surgery.
Back in March, Doherty opened up about the state of her mental health in a Q&A session on her podcast, Let's Be Clear With Shannen Doherty, candidly addressing whether she's "happy" at the present moment.
"I am, I am happy," she answered. "It's been an interesting year and a half. 2023 did not start great and I found it incredibly challenging and, you know, every day is a challenge because with cancer, things change all the time."
She added, "I feel like a lot of clutter is out of my life now and things are much more clear and focused, and I know what I want for myself and I know how I want to wake up every morning."
Last December, she told ET how she hopes to make a difference by sharing her story.
"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,'" said Doherty in sharing the objective of 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."
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