Shannen Doherty Shares Her Cancer Story With Chelsea Handler

https://www.youtube.com/embed/suM7fj4IYFE

Shannen Doherty recalled what it’s like to be diagnosed with cancer in an emotional new interview with Chelsea Handler. During the sit-down, set to air on Handler’s Netflix show, Chelsea, the actress holds back tears while revealing what she’s learned through her health crisis.

“I think what’s beautiful and hard and interesting about cancer is that it tears you down and builds you, and tears you down and builds you,” the Beverly Hills, 90210 alum says in the clip. “It remakes you so many different times. The person I thought I was supposed to be or was going to be or who I thought I was six months ago is now somebody completely different. I realize, ‘Wow, I really thought that I was so brave and so gracious this entire time and really I was just hiding.’”

Handler, whose mom died of breast cancer in 2006, got choked up during the emotional interview.

“Don’t cry! Don’t cry!” Doherty told the talk show host as Handler tried to hold back tears.

“Well, I mean, all right — hold on a second,” Handler, 41, said, while tilting her head back to keep the tears from streaming down her face.

“This was very hard and not humbling — because I’ve already been humbled by cancer,” Doherty then continues. “It was hard in the sense of rethinking sort of who you are and how you come to terms with who are now and accepting it and looking at your husband and thinking like, ‘Dude, I’m so sorry.’”

The actress, 45, was diagnosed with breast cancer in February 2015 and had a single mastectomy this past May. In August, she revealed that the cancer had spread and she was going to undergo chemotherapy followed by radiation. Last week, she shared an emotional flashback Friday photo from one day after undergoing chemo.

“Hope is possible. Possibility is possible. To my cancer family and everyone suffering…. stay courageous. Stay strong. Stay positive. #wegotthis,” she captioned the snap of herself curled up in a hospital bed. “#fightlikeagirl.”