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Shannen Doherty has an explanation for why she was fired from Beverly Hills, 90210 after four seasons. The 52-year-old actress welcomed former co-star Jason Priestley on the January 22 episode of her podcast, Let’s Be Clear With Shannen Doherty, and she revealed that her struggling marriage to then-husband Ashley Hamilton played a part in her sudden exit from the series.
“I was in a really horrible marriage, and there were things that were transpiring in that marriage that made it really hard for me to be on time for work,” Shannen said to Jason, 54. “And I know that that became a very big problem for the rest of you, as it should be.”
Shannen, who played Brenda Walsh, sister of Jason’s Brandon Walsh, took fault for her poor work ethic as a cast member on the teen drama. However, she did express that she wished the producers intervened to set her straight at the time.
“I certainly wish that I had been sort of sat down and sort of looked at and said, ‘Listen, the end result is going to be this, you are going to get fired because none of us are willing to put up with it anymore. And I understand that you have an issue in your personal life, but that also can’t bleed into work, you also have to get your s**t together,’ ” she explained.
Jaon Priestley and Shannen Doherty in 1991 (Photo: DMI/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock)
“I don’t think anybody knew that my father was super sick, and I don’t think anybody knew that my husband was a massive drug addict … and it was all-consuming for me,” Shannen noted, as she acknowledged that she could’ve been more upfront with producers about what she was going through in her personal life. “I didn’t even want to leave the house because I was scared that he would go and get drugs,” she added.
Jason, 54, told his former on-screen sister that he was unaware of her personal struggles back then and had a hard time with her leaving the show in 1994.
“I wish that I would’ve known more about what was happening in your personal life at the time because I could have hopefully managed it with more compassion and more caring, but we only knew what we knew,” he said. “The hardest thing for me was the show was about Brandon and Brenda, it’s about the Walsh family and all of a sudden we were going to lose one of the members of the Walsh family.”
Shannen is currently battling stage 4 breast cancer that has spread to her bones and brain. She had a mastectomy and also underwent chemotherapy and radiation. She had a brain tumor removed in early 2023.
