Shannen Doherty Discusses ‘Charmed’ Tensions with Alyssa Milano: ‘I Cried Every Single Night’

Shannen Doherty opened up about the challenging dynamics with Alyssa Milano during their time on the popular series “Charmed.” Speaking on her podcast “Let’s Be Clear with Shannen Doherty,” the 52-year-old actress shared insights about the competitiveness and lack of support she felt from Milano while conversing with fellow co-star Holly Marie Combs.

Doherty recounted an incident that strained her relationship with Combs, implicating Milano in preventing her from visiting Combs in the hospital during a serious surgery. “Hospitals scared me to death. I waited 24 hours after your surgery to go, and then it wasn’t even easy for me to get in,” Doherty said. “I was like, being told I couldn’t even get in by Alyssa and her mom. They were blocking people from seeing you, and at the time, you didn’t know.”

She added, “I remembered you texted me and were like, ‘Dude, are you going to come and see me?’ And I can feel like your pain of feeling like I’d abandoned you. But I also felt like my anger at the situation of not being allowed to come see you, and like 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 cited on-set “drama” as the reason for her early exit from “Charmed” in 2001, after which Rose McGowan took over her role. “There was too much drama on the set and not enough passion for the work. You know, I’m 30 years old, and I don’t have time for drama in my life anymore,” she told Entertainment Tonight at that time.

Reflecting on Doherty’s departure, Milano told Entertainment Weekly, “I think it’s hard when you put two very different people together. I’m very laid-back and passive. I have my Buddha. I come in here and meditate. [Shannen’s] got a lot of energy, she’s very headstrong, she wants to get the job done.”

Doherty, who has been openly discussing her mental health through her podcast, recently shared that her cancer has spread to her brain. Initially diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015, she underwent extensive treatment and entered remission in 2017. However, in 2018, she disclosed that her tumor markers were elevated.