Tori Spelling Relives Horrifying Moment She Realized Best Pal Shannen Doherty Was Dead: ‘My Phone Kept Buzzing... It Was Shocking’
July 30 2024, Published 7:24 p.m. ET
Actress Tori Spelling opened up on her podcast about her roller-coaster of emotions she felt when she learned that Shannen Doherty had passed away, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Spelling, 51, devoted her latest episode of her podcast MisSPELLING to sharing those initial moments when she learned that her Beverly Hills 90210 co-star and dear friend of 36 years had lost her battle with cancer at the age of 53.
Spelling confessed:" It was really tough for me when I found out the news.”
She shared her phone started ringing around 7 A.M. while she was sleeping with two of her children in their bed on Sunday morning, July 14. Her phone was silenced but kept “buzzing”.
Said Spelling: “I knew immediately. I was like, ‘Oh my god, somebody's passed. Somebody important has died. And I took that moment not to go on social media. I didn't call anyone back. I wanted to gather the details for myself so I could see how I wanted to process it before being overwhelmed by voices and text and emails.”
After finally checking Google, Spelling shared: “I saw that Shannen had passed on Saturday night, and it was shocking, and I think the first thing I felt was madness. Is madness the word? I felt mad.”
Explaining that she wasn’t upset for herself, she elaborated: “I felt mad for the life that wouldn't continue, the life that had so much to offer, not just herself but everybody around here.”
Spelling then took the opportunity to take a walk down memory lane, recalling that she first met Doherty on the set of Beverly Hills 90210 for the pilot episode when Spelling was 15 and Doherty was 17.
Spelling played Donna Martin on the hit Fox series from 1990 to 2000 opposite Doherty’s character Brenda Walsh.
She admitted she was terrified and feared how people would react since she was the producer’s daughter (the late Aaron Spelling).
The actress added: “I think Shannen and Brian (Austin Green) were the first people that I met on set, and they were really really welcoming. And Shannen has that smile, that smile that can light up the room.”
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She continued: “There was so much joy behind that smile. And she immediately took me under her wing. She gave me a big hug, walked me around, took me into the makeup trailer.”
Trying to embrace the late actress’s legacy, Spelling said: “I've really been going back in time privately and thinking, you know, about the enormous effect that Shannen had, not just on a generation, generations to come and to come. She will live on in her work and in the people that loved her and the things she stood for...I just want to thank Shan for being that beacon in my life. I have promised to carry the torch.”
As RadarOnline previously reported, Spelling took to Instagram the day after Doherty died, following her near 10-year battle with breast cancer.
“I don’t have outward words yet…but WE knew and that’s what matters.”
The following day, she posted a photo of her and Doherty and wrote: “F--- them… is what Shan would say if I told her I felt pressure to have to summarize via social media a 36-year relationship and the grief I feel for a fire whose flame went out too soon.”
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