Shannen Doherty opened up about her time on the set of Charmed. During an episode of her podcast, “Let’s Be Clear With Shannen Doherty,” the actress, 52, claimed that her former co-star Alyssa Milano caused a “weird divide” between her and Holly Marie Combs.
“There was a competitiveness with Alyssa. I heard she addressed it in her book,” Shannen told Holly, 50, during her podcast episode. “Obviously, I’m never reading her book because it’s [titled] Sorry Not Sorry, so, right there, it tells me you’re not freaking sorry. Why mention something in that case? There was also competitiveness about you. Which was really interesting of [her] trying to pull you away from me and that transpired in that second season.”
While filming season 2 of the WB series, Shannen’s father was “in and out of the hospital nonstop,” and Holly was experiencing her own health concerns. While reflecting on this difficult time for both of them, Shannen admitted,“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,” she recalled, before claiming. “I was, like, being told I couldn’t even get in. Alyssa and her mom were blocking people from seeing you, and at the time, you didn’t know. I remember you texted me, ‘Dude are you going to come and see me?’”
Shannen then confessed that Holly’s text made her realize that it looked like she had “abandoned” her co-star at the time. “I also felt my anger at the situation of not being allowed to come see you and how a sort of family had swooped in,” she added. “[It] caused a weird divide between the two of us that continued throughout season 2. I think I cried every single night.”
Holly agreed that there “was a lot going on behind the scenes.” The Pretty Little Liars alum also explained, “I think it was pretty obvious I was raised by teenage parents and I didn’t have a big family So, you’re right, when a family swooped in and tried to basically adopt me it was very seductive for me. I also wanted everybody to get along, I wanted the show to be successful.”
From 1998 to 2001, Shannen portrayed Prue on Charmed, alongside Holly’s Piper and Alyssa’s Phoebe. Shannen left the series after three seasons in the wake of rumors that she and Alyssa had a strained behind-the-scenes working relationship. As a result of Shannen’s departure, her character, Prue, died and actress Rose McGowan replaced her as the long-lost half-sister Paige Matthews.
While promoting her book in 2021, Alyssa claimed that she and Shannen were “cordial” nowadays, and Alyssa took “responsibility for a lot of our tension that we had.”
“I think a lot of our struggle came from feeling that I was in competition rather than it being that sisterhood that the show was so much about,” Alyssa admitted to Entertainment Tonight, before adding, “And I have some guilt about my part in that.”