Shannen Doherty recently opened up about her hesitance to re-enter the dating scene while battling stage 4 cancer.
On Wednesday’s (June 26) episode of Kelly Ripa’s podcast, “Let’s Talk Off Camera,” Doherty shared her concerns.
“Listen, 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,” she candidly told Ripa.
The Charmed alum, 53, elaborated on the challenges, stating that “most men” find it more difficult than women to cope with “death and illness.” She added, “I think that I’m a very hard sell.”
Doherty explained that for her, dating is more about finding companionship than anything else. She admitted to feeling self-conscious due to the scars from her numerous surgeries. “I have so many scars from surgery that it’s like, how do you explain that ‘No, that isn’t from giving birth, that’s from reconstruction surgery.’”
Her struggles with confidence have only been exacerbated by the physical changes resulting from her cancer treatments. “I’ve had a complicated past with my confidence, and the surgeries following my cancer diagnoses have made me very insecure,” she confessed.
Doherty was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. Although she went into remission in 2017, the cancer returned three years later and by 2023, it had spread to her brain and bones. Since then, Doherty has been open about her health challenges. She has even been preparing for the future by downsizing her belongings to ease the burden on her mother, Rosa.
“My priority at the moment is my mom. I know it’s going to be hard on her if I pass away before her. Because it’s going to be so hard on her, I want other things to be a lot easier. I don’t want her to have a bunch of stuff to deal with. I don’t want her to have four storage units filled with furniture,” she shared on an April episode of her podcast, “Let’s Be Clear.”
Amid her health battles, Doherty also faced personal turmoil. In April 2023, she filed for divorce from her husband Kurt Iswarienko after 11 years of marriage. She alleged that Iswarienko had been having an affair, a revelation that came just before she underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor. A source for Iswarienko denied the allegation.
The divorce proceedings have been contentious, with Doherty accusing Iswarienko of intentionally delaying the process to avoid paying spousal support.
“It is simply not right that Kurt be permitted to prolong our divorce in hopes that I die before he is required to pay me while he continues to live his life and shirk his responsibilities to his dying wife of more than 11 years,” Doherty stated in the filing, as per Page Six.
Iswarienko’s attorney refuted this claim, asserting that he sought to finalize the divorce in a September 2023 settlement that Doherty allegedly rejected.
All our thoughts are with Shannen Doherty as she bravely battles cancer.
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