Shannen Doherty never gave up her dream of becoming a mother.
Just months before her death on July 13 from breast cancer, the Beverly Hills, 90210 alum provided more insight into her motherhood journey—and how that longtime desire affected the way she chose to treat her cancer.
“Not only not only did I want a child for myself, but I wanted it, you know, for my husband,” she said of trying to get pregnant with ex-husband Kurt Iswarienko in a January 2024 episode of her podcast Let’s Be Clear. “I wanted it for our marriage. I wanted him to have that part of himself fulfilled.”
During the episode, which featured Shannen’s longtime oncologist Dr. Lawrence Piro, she discussed her decision not to take tamoxifen—a hormone blocker often prescribed to treat or prevent breast cancer—following her remission in 2017.
“I was fairly certain it wasn’t going to come back,” Shannen explained of her cancer, “because I believed that the reason why I got cancer was because I did IVF.”
