Shannen Doherty revealed that she was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer again in an interview with Good Morning America, according to ABC.
The news outlet reported that during her first diagnosis with breast cancer back in 2015, she was transparent about her illness and documented her battle with cancer on social media. However, this time around, she decided to keep the news to herself while she worked on the reboot of the hit television show, “90210.”
During her interview, she revealed her troubles, saying that she would rather people hear the story from her.
“It’s going to come out in a matter of days or a week that—I’m stage four. So my cancer came back,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve processed it. It’s a bitter pill to swallow in a lot of ways.”
The 48-year-old actress said that one of the first things she thinks about—or is concerned about—is how to break the news to her mother and husband.
Doherty opened up about her battle and how she was coping with the diagnosis this time around, saying, “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.”
Another reason why she didn’t tell anyone this time around was that she wanted to prove that she could work—especially following her co-star, Luke Perry’s passing.
“It’s so weird for me to be diagnosed and then somebody who was, you know, seemingly healthy to go first. It was really shocking. And the least I could do to honor him was to do that show. I still haven’t done [enough], in my opinion. So it’s a hard one.”
She wanted to prove that a person diagnosed with stage 4 cancer could still work.
“One of the reasons, along with Luke—that I did ‘90210’ and didn’t really tell anybody because I thought, people can look at, that other people with stage four can work too. Like, you know, our life doesn’t end the minute we get that diagnosis. We still have some living to do,” Doherty said in the interview on Good Morning America.
The news outlet reported that while she still wanted to keep her diagnosis secret, there was one person out of her co-workers who she told about her condition, Brian Austin Green, and she revealed that Green was there to help her get through her work on set.
“I had moments of great anxiety where I thought, ‘I can’t really do this,’ and Brian was the one person who—of that group of people that knew—that I told, like, pretty quickly and said, ‘Here … this is what I’m dealing with.’ So prior to shooting, he would always call me and say, ‘Listen, you know, whatever happens, I have your back.’ He would look at me and be like, ‘We got this, kiddo’ … so Brian helped me through a lot,'” Doherty said during the interview.
Doherty added that she wanted this battle with cancer to be something that she could use to make a difference to other people who were undergoing similar situations, adding that she wasn’t going to let cancer slow her down.
“I think the thing I want to do the most right now is I want to make an impact. I want to be remembered for something bigger than just me,” Doherty said.
