The actress departed 'Charmed' after three seasons, citing 'drama' on set as a primary reason.
Shannen Doherty is looking back at her time filming Charmed with mixed feelings, revealing the underlying tensions and competitiveness she experienced with co-star Alyssa Milano.
On this week's episode of her podcast, Let's Be Clear With Shannen Doherty, the 52-year-old actress shared her perspective on the "lack of female support" and the impact it had on her friendship with fellow cast member Holly Marie Combs, who was a guest on the podcast. During the show's first season, Combs underwent surgery for a uterine tumor, causing a temporary halt in filming. When Doherty attempted to visit Combs in the hospital, she claimed to have faced resistance from Milano and her mother, Lin Milano.
"I waited 24 hours after your surgery to go, and then it wasn't even easy for me to get in. I was being told I couldn't even get in by Alyssa and her mom," Doherty expressed on the podcast.
This incident marked the beginning of a strained relationship that persisted throughout the second season, leading Doherty to have tearful nights on set.
"I remembered you texted me and were like, 'Dude, are you going to come and see me [at the hospital]?' And I can feel like your pain of feeling like I'd abandoned you," Doherty told Combs, 50. "But I also felt like my anger at the situation of not being allowed to come see you, and how sort of family had like swooped in and caused like this sort of weird divide between the two of us that then continued throughout season 2 where I think I cried every single night of season 2.”
Doherty departed Charmed after three seasons, with Rose McGowan replacing her. In a 2001 interview with ET, she stated, "There was too much drama on the set and not enough passion for the work."
While Milano seemed to think a few years ago that she and Doherty were now cordial to one another, the Beverly Hills, 90210 star hinted on her podcast episode that reconciliation might not be on the horizon.
Referring to Milano's 2021 book, Sorry Not Sorry, Doherty said, "I heard that she addressed it [the competitiveness] in her book. Obviously, I'm never reading her book because it's Sorry, Not Sorry. So right there, you know, it tells me you're not freaking sorry."
However, Milano told ET while promoting her memoir, "I would say we are cordial. You know, I could take responsibility for a lot of our tension that we had. I think a lot of our struggle came from feeling that I was in competition rather than it being that sisterhood that the show was so much about. And I have some guilt about my part in that."
She added, "I have respect for [Shannen]. Great actress, loves her family so much, and I just wish I could've felt strong enough in who I was to recognize that back then."
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