Shannen Doherty Says Alyssa Milano Blocked Her From Visiting Co-Star in the Hospital
The Charmed castmates have been feuding for years, and Doherty explained why in a new interview.
The decades-long feud between Charmed stars Shannen Doherty and Alyssa Milano rages on, despite the fact that the show went off the air in 2006. As reported by TVLine, on a new episode of her podcast, Let's Be Clear, Doherty was joined by Charmed co-star and longtime friend Holly Marie Combs, and their conversation included what it was like working with their third TV sister, Milano. According to Doherty, in addition to other personal issues they had, Milano blocked her from visiting Combs in the hospital when she became ill in the early days of Charmed.
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Combs underwent surgery to have a baseball-sized tumor removed from her uterus when the first season of the show was in production, as reported by TVLine. During an episode of her Charmed podcast The House of Halliwell in February, Combs said that Doherty, Milano, and Milano's mother were all very supportive of her during this time.
However, during the latest episode of Let's Be Clear, Doherty said that she would have been even more involved in Combs' recovery if it hadn't been for Milano and her mom.
"Hospitals scared me to death, and I waited 23 hours after your surgery to go, and then it wasn't even easy for me to get in," Doherty said. "I was being told I couldn't even get in by Alyssa and her mom. They were blocking people from seeing you. At the time, you didn't know. I remember you texted me and were like, 'Dude, are you going to come to see me?' I felt your pain of feeling like I had abandoned you, but I also felt my anger at the situation of not being allowed to come see you."
Doherty claimed that Milano's family "swooped in and caused this weird divide between the two of [them], which then continued throughout Season 2." She added, "I think I cried every single night of Season 2."
For her part, Combs said she was grateful to have Milano and her mom at that time, because of her own family dynamic. "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," she said (via Entertainment Weekly). "I also wanted everybody to get along, I wanted the show to be successful. There were no angels, there were no demons. We all had bad days, we all had good days. We all could have behaved better at certain points but there was a lack of awareness of a bigger broader picture."
Best Life has reached out to a representative for Milano for comment.
Elsewhere in the episode, Doherty explained that "competitiveness" with Milano was at the core of their feud. "There was a lack of female support," she said. The 52-year-old actor acknowledged that Milano wrote about their drama in her 2021 memoir, but explained, "Obviously I'm never going to read her book, because it's [titled] Sorry Not Sorry, so right there it tells me you're not friggin' sorry. Why even mention something in that case?"
Animosity between Milano and Doherty played out in the press when Doherty left Charmed after Season 3. Doherty said that the people she worked didn't care about their jobs, and Milano shot back that Doherty shouldn't have "bad-mouthed" her co-workers. There were other public exchanges after that, but in 2021, Milano took responsibility for her role in the feud and, as Doherty did on the podcast, blamed the rivalry that developed between them.
"I would say we are cordial," she told Entertainment Tonight of her relationship with Doherty. "You know, I could take 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. And I have some guilt about my part in that." She added, "I have respect for her. Great actress, loves her family so much, and I just wish I could've felt strong enough in who I was to recognize that back then."
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