Kelly Ripa Reveals Devastating Detail of Her Last Conversation With Shannen Doherty: ‘I Felt Very Crushed’
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Kelly Ripa recently shared the details of her last conversation with the late Shannen Doherty that left her “crushed.” Ripa interviewed Doherty for her podcast and the Beverly Hills, 90210 star indicated she “didn’t have a lot of time left.”
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Ripa spoke with Doherty for her June 26, 2024 episode of the Let’s Talk Off Camera podcast weeks before the Charmed actress died in July following her battle with breast cancer.
During the podcast, Ripa asked Doherty, “Speaking of your health, how are you? Like, what are the updates?”
The actress responded, “It’s kind of like being a guinea pig on a wheel. You just keep on spinning the wheel and hope your protocol lasts a long time. Inevitably, a protocol will stop working, and then you have to move on to the next. Each new treatment comes with its own set of challenges.”
In a September 10 interview with Entertainment Tonight, Kelly Ripa recalled that last conversation with Doherty. The ET interviewer asked, “What was something from that conversation with Shannen that resonated with you, that you will remember most?”
The Live With Kelly and Mark host said she was “constantly” trying to play matchmaker for Doherty. “I always had an idea in my mind as to who might be a good match with Shannen,” Ripa explained. “But the last conversation, she actually said to me, ‘I’m kind of a tough sell because I don’t have a lot of time left.’”
Doherty said in the podcast, “I think it’s hard for somebody like me, in my personal opinion, because it’s hard to go into dating someone when you know that they might have an expiration date. So I think I’m a very hard sell.”
Ripa shared why that was so difficult to hear. “It was just painful because we’re the same age, we grew up together, and I always thought that she got the rawest deal of anyone in show business,” she explained.
“I still believe that. I stand by that,” she added. “I just really adored her. Every experience I ever had with her was so positive. She’s a generous human being. So that, I think, is what I took away. I felt very crushed that she seemed to know that her time was very, very limited.”
She added, “But I will say, she was telling me about her treatments and it was so brutal and painful. It sounds very glib but the fact she’s no longer in pain — in physical pain — provides everyone that knew and loved her with a little peace.”
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Doherty had been fired from both Beverly Hills, 90210 and Charmed. On an episode of her podcast Let’s Be Clear, she addressed what happened on 90210, explaining she was in a “really horrible marriage.” Without being too specific, she said there were “things that were transpiring in that marriage that made it really hard for [her] to consistently be on time for work.”
Doherty married Ashley Hamilton in October 1993 and she filed for divorce in April 1994.
The situation “became a very big problem” on the set of the show because she would delay shooting and that led to working longer hours.
She noted, “It wasn’t anybody’s responsibility but mine, but 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. 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.’”
Doherty died on July 13 after battling Stage 4 breast cancer. She was 53.
Check out the gallery of then-and-now photos of the cast of Beverly Hills, 90210 below.
