Shannen Doherty made quite the revelation about why her 11-year marriage to husband Kurt Iswarienko failed.
On Wednesday, the “Beverly Hills, 90210” alum debuted her new podcast, “Let’s Be Clear with Shannen Doherty,” where she shared a heartbreaking story about realizing her relationship was “essentially over.”
The former “Charmed” star introduced her story about 35 minutes into the episode by saying that she found out in January 2023 that her stage 4 breast cancer had spread to her brain. She said doctors wanted to perform brain surgery to remove a tumor so they could examine it and decide “what was happening and then what would be the correct treatment protocol.”
Doherty said she was “petrified” before the operation and thought she would probably die or lose a function such as her ability to speak or walk as a result.
“I went into the office early in the morning and only after finding out that my marriage was essentially over and that my husband had been having an affair for two years,” she said. “Not having this operation, even though he clearly wanted to, I couldn’t go into the operation with him. I felt so betrayed.”
“At the end of the day, I just felt so incredibly unloved by someone I had been with for 14 years, by someone I loved with all my heart,” Doherty continued, adding that she was separated from her mother during the surgery , her brother and other best friends supported her.
Doherty fought a long and public battle with cancer. In 2015, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. In 2017, she announced that she was in remission, but in 2020, she revealed to ABC News that the disease had returned. In June 2023, Doherty said that a scan earlier that year showed that the cancer had metastasized to her brain. In November 2023, she made the sad revelation to People that the cancer had spread to her bones.
Open Image ModalDoherty and Kurt Iswarienko at the American Cancer Society’s Giants of Science Gala in Los Angeles in 2016.
Vivien Killilea via Getty Images
Although Doherty’s brain surgery earlier this year was successful, it still meant that Doherty had to undergo brain radiation, a new treatment that she said was similar to chemotherapy and caused her to lose her hair “once again.”
“Just having to go through all of that while trying to figure out if you’re going to get a f***ing divorce and trying to get to the bottom of the truth,” she said.
In April, Doherty’s publicist announced that she had filed for divorce from Iswarienko. He was her third husband. Doherty was previously married to Ashley Hamilton from 1993 to 1994 and to Rick Salomon from 2002 to 2003.
Doherty further shared on her podcast that she is “obsessed” with finding out the truth about her ex’s infidelity “through conversation and expecting someone to be honest with me.”
“If you spend 14 years together and cheated, doesn’t that person deserve the absolute truth, no matter how much it hurts them?” she said, adding that she “also spoke to the girlfriend he had with me for two years cheated for a long time.”
For more details on the dissolution of Doherty’s marriage, listen to the Let’s Be Clear with Shannen Doherty podcast.
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