Actress Shannen Doherty revealed during an appearance on Good Morning America on Tuesday that she has been diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer.
The news comes after a previous breast cancer diagnosis in March 2015 that went into remission following treatment.
She said that her first concern after she received the diagnosis was how she would share the news with her mother and husband.
“I would say that my first reaction is always concern about how — how am I going to tell my mom, my husband.”
Doherty decided to keep the diagnosis a secret but shared it with a few people. She returned to work on the set of the 90210 reboot early in 2019 learning that she had cancer again. She joined the cast of 90210 after the death her friend and former 90210 co-star Luke Perry.
Luke Perry died at the age of 52 after suffering a massive stroke.
According to Doherty, her 90210 co-star Brian Austin Green was one of the few people she shared the diagnosis with. She leaned on Green for support during the time they spent long hours daily on the set filming the show.
She told Robach that she joined the cast of 90210 partly to pay tribute to Perry and also because she wanted to show that life does not end the moment you get a stage 4 cancer diagnosis and that people can still work while living with cancer.
This is incredibly sad. Pray for Shannen Doherty. https://t.co/5cA2q7E0wt
— Carmine Sabia (@CarmineSabia) February 4, 2020
Best wishes for a speedy recovery for #shannendoherty. https://t.co/Dif3u8aq3e
— Lenny Dykstra (@LennyDykstra) February 4, 2020
Oh, no. Praying for @DohertyShannen. ?#ShannenDoherty https://t.co/CDzA3JLtUo
— Turn Tennessee Blue (@TurnTNBlue) February 4, 2020
Despite her courage and fortitude, she said she was still struggling to process the diagnosis and described it as a “bitter pill to swallow in a lot of ways.”
“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.”
She told Robach that she decided to reveal the diagnosis because legal documents that could soon be made public mention it and she felt it was more appropriate that people hear it from her first.
“It’s going to come out in a matter of days or a week that — I’m stage four. So my cancer came back. And that’s why I’m here.”
Shannen Doherty is best known for her role as Brenda Walsh in Beverly Hills, 90210 and BH90210. She is also known for her role as Prue Halliwell in Charmed and Jenny Wilder in Little House on the Prairie.