Shannen Doherty's doctor is sharing the actress' final moments.
The Beverly Hills, 90210 star "was surrounded by some of her very close friends" — as well as her beloved, dog, Bowie — when she died after a long battle with cancer on Saturday, July 13, her physician, Dr. Lawrence D. Piro, told People in an interview published on Tuesday, July 16. She was 53 years old.
"In the last few hours, she was in a place where she was very comfortable and sleeping and transitioning, and she was surrounded by some of her very close friends," Dr. Piro, who was also with Doherty during her last moments, continued. "The room was surrounded by a select group of friends that were giving her a lot of care and support. It was somber and sad, but beautiful and loving. The hardest thing about this was that she wasn't ready to leave because she loved life."
Doherty — who shared her valiant fight against the disease boldly and candidly — announced she had been diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. Though she went into remission in 2017, the cancer returned two years later. in 2020, the Heathers star announced she had metastatic stage IV cancer. The cancer had spread to her bones in 2022.
"We kept going until we couldn't go any more," Dr. Piro told People, noting Doherty's zest for life, research into the disease and her treatment options and her desire to beat the cancer.
"The last conversation that we had, she was in the process of realizing that things had taken a pretty significant turn. The conversation was about love and support and caring and still fighting through," he recalled. "She wanted to continue to take treatment and fight through, even though her physical condition had taken a bit of a downturn. And so we did."
While Doherty was fighting for her life against cancer, she was also embattled in a messy divorce from ex-husband Kurt Iswarienko, who filed for divorce from the Charmed alum in June 2023. (Doherty finalized the divorce one day before she died.)
Despite the drama with her ex, Doherty's doctor "never got the sense that that emotional challenge was draining her ability to continue to fight on the medical side," Dr. Piro told People. "It certainly made it more challenging, but she's such a winner that I feel like she pulled all the resources necessary to give the best fight against cancer, even though she was being very emotionally challenged. She fought so hard and she didn't believe that it would ever be over, which kind of makes everybody around you believe that, too, because you want to believe that."
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