Jason Priestley Shares Update On Shannen Doherty's Cancer Battle: 'She's Always Been A Fighter'

Siblings forever!

It’s been nearly 30 years since we first saw on-screen twins Jason Priestley and Shannen Doherty in Beverly Hills, 90210, and clearly, a lot of life has happened since then! For the Charmed alum, she has been battling breast cancer on and off for several years now, most recently announcing that it had aggressively returned in early 2020. This time, we’re getting a new update from her longtime friend.

On the September 22 episode of Australia’s Studio 10, the Brandon Walsh portrayer shared:

“I reach out to Shannen every few months, just to check in on her and say hi.”

As fans may recall, it was a year ago that BH90210 aired, which reunited the original cast members of the teen series, except Luke Perry who sadly passed away earlier in 2019. At the time of filming, Shannen’s cancer had already returned.

Priestley added:

“Shannen’s a real tough girl, and Shannen’s a fighter and she’s always been a fighter. And I know that she will continue to fight as hard as she can. Last time I heard from her, she was in pretty good spirits.”

Back in February, Doherty spoke with Amy Robach of Good Morning America to reveal that she had privately been battling stage four cancer again for the past year:

“I don’t think that I’ve processed it. It’s a bitter pill to swallow in a lot of ways. I’ve definitely had days where I say, ‘Why me?’ And then I go, ‘Well why not me? Who else, you know? Who else besides me deserves this?’ None of us do. I would say that my first reaction is always concern about how am I going to tell my mom, my husband [Kurt Iswarienko].”

After the shocking loss of her on-screen love to a stroke in March 2019, the Heathers star decided to keep the fight to herself during filming and not share that her cancer had returned. During that time, she also appeared on a special tribute to Perry on Riverdale. The 49-year-old recalled:

“It was so weird for me to be diagnosed and then somebody who was, you know, seemingly healthy to go first. It was really, like, shocking and the least I could do to honor him was do that show. Like, I still haven’t done enough in my opinion. So, it’s a hard one because I thought, when I finally do come out, I will have worked and worked 16 hours a day and people can look at that and say, ‘Oh my God. Yeah, she can work and other people with stage four can work, too.’ Our life doesn’t end the minute we get that diagnosis. We still have some living to do.”

But one person who she did emotionally open up to was Brian Austin Green:

“I had moments of great anxiety where I thought, ‘I can’t really do this.’ And Brian was the one person who, of that group of people, that knew, that I told, like, pretty quickly. So, prior to shooting, he would always call me and say, ‘Listen, you know whatever happens, like, I have your back.’ And we were able to talk about Luke in a way that was very positive and uplifting and sort of remember a lot of great moments.”

We’re sending Shannen strength and continued best wishes.

[Image via Propaganda Films/Spelling Entertainment/Torand Productions & WENN/Instar & Adriana M. Barraza/WENN.]