Sarah Michelle Gellar thinks longtime pal Shannen Doherty is a real-life superhero.
“She’s incredible,” Gellar, 46, told Access Hollywood in a Tuesday, October 24, interview about Doherty, 52, who has been battling stage IV cancer. “When they say a warrior, she is a warrior. She lives every day and she’s fighting. There are ups and downs and there are days that are harder than others and there are some days that are easy, but she’s doing great.”
Gellar and Doherty have been friends since the late 1990s when they both starred on WB shows airing at hte same time. Doherty initially battled breast cancer between March 2015 and 2017 — with Gellar by her side as support — before revealing in February 2020 that the illness had returned.
“It’s going to come out in a matter of days or a week that — I’m stage IV. So my cancer came back. And that’s why I’m here,” the Beverly Hills, 90210 alum told Good Morning America at the time. “I don’t think I’ve processed it. It’s a bitter pill to swallow in a lot of ways.”
Doherty shared that her diagnosis came about four months before the untimely death of her former 90210 costar Luke Perry, who died at age 52 in February 2019 from a massive ischemic stroke. Despite the cancer returning, Doherty shared that it was important for her to shoot Fox’s 90210 reboot, BH90210 — where the original cast played heightened versions of themselves — to honor her late friend.
“It’s so weird for me to be diagnosed and then somebody who was, you know, seemingly healthy to go first,” she told GMA. “It was really, like, shocking. And the least I could do to honor him was to do [the reboot]. … One of the reasons, along with Luke, that I did 90210 and didn’t really tell anybody [was] because I thought, ‘People can look at that [and see] other people with stage IV can work too.’ Like, you know, our life doesn’t end the minute we get that diagnosis. We still have some living to do.”
Days after Doherty announced the diagnosis, Gellar took to social media to show love and support for her BFF. “Life is tough… but you are tougher,” she wrote via Instagram alongside a photo of herself and Dohert at the 2019 American Humane Hero Dog Awards.
Gellar opened to Us Weekly about Doherty’s health battle just weeks later, gushing over her friend’s strength and ability to show up even in the toughest of times. “This girl has had this diagnosis — she shot an entire season of a television show,” the Buffy the Vampire Slayer alum exclusively told Us at the time. “She looked beautiful. She worked 16-hour days. I think people have to remember that life is tough, but Shannen’s a lot tougher.”
Gellar noted that cancer is not something that “defines” Doherty — even if the experience has “changed” her.
“She’s a tough chick on the outside, but she’s not necessarily on the inside,” Gellar continued. “And now I think people know that. So just remember that she’s been dealing with this for a long time and I think it’s unfortunate how in this world we’re forced to be able to say truths that maybe we’re not ready for other people, that we’re still digesting ourselves.”
In June, Doherty revealed that the cancer had spread to her brain. She later shared a video of herself preparing for surgery via Instagram, writing, “January 16, 2023. Surgery. I had a tumor in my head they wanted to remove and also biopsy. I am clearly trying to be brave but I am petrified. … The fear was overwhelming to me. Scared of all possible bad outcomes, worried about leaving my mom and how that would impact her. Worried that I would come out of surgery not me anymore. This is what cancer looks like.”
