As Shannen Doherty continues to battle Stage IV breast cancer, Brian Austin Green is right by her side, cheering her on. Brian gave HollywoodLife an update on Shannen’s condition, revealing that his Beverly Hills, 90210 co-star and dear friend (and neighbor!) is “doing really good” despite the complications that come with being ill during the pandemic. The “fighter” has to take extra precautions in order to protect her health, he explained.
“[Shannen] had to be a lot more careful in this pandemic than most because what she’s dealing with. She’s much more prone to complications due to COVID, so I haven’t gotten to see her or spend as much physical time with her as I would like to,” Brian told HollywoodLife. “She lives really close to me and it is unfortunate that she is literally that close. I could walk to her house but can’t. She’s had to distance herself from everyone during this.”
Though they can’t hang out in person for the time being, Brian noted that they talk on the phone “all the time” and text, too. “She seems to be doing really good,” he assured fans. Shannen publicly revealed in February 2020 that her breast cancer, first diagnosed in 2015, had returned and metastasized, meaning it had spread beyond her breast and lymph nodes. In a September 2020 interview with Elle, Shannen said that she would have to undergo “hormone therapy to block the estrogen fueling [the] cancer, plus a second targeted drug that is often effective at stabilizing metastatic disease.”
The Charmed star added, “I feel like I’m a very, very healthy human being. It’s hard to wrap up your affairs when you feel like you’re going to live another 10 or 15 years… It’s like anybody with Stage IV [cancer] faces this sort of thing, where others want to put you out to pasture. I’m not ready for pasture. I’ve got a lot of life in me.” Brian vehemently echoed this sentiment in his interview with HollywoodLife.
“Shannen’s awesome. She’s a fighter,” Brian gushed. “She’s doing what Shan does. She’s staying as positive as possible and she’s going full steam ahead with life until life decides, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ But that doesn’t seem like anywhere in the near future.”