Forever friendship. Jason Priestley gave a health update on longtime pal and former costar Shannen Doherty amid her battle with stage IV breast cancer.
“Last time I heard from her, she was in pretty good spirits,” Priestley, 51, said on the Tuesday, September 22, episode of Australia’s Studio 10.
The actors, who have been friends for more than 30 years, having played twins Brandon and Brenda Walsh on Beverly Hills, 90210, which ran from 1990 to 2000, still keep in touch.
“I reach out to Shannen every few months, just to check in on her and say hi,” the Private Eyes star explained.
Priestley, who reconnected with Doherty, 49, onscreen for BH90210 in 2019, revealed that the actress is strong.
“Shannen’s a real tough girl,” he said. “Shannen’s a fighter and she’s always been a fighter. And I know that she will continue to fight as hard as she can.”
The Charmed alum revealed in February that her breast cancer had returned after previously entering remission in 2017, following a two-year battle with the illness.
“I don’t think I’ve processed it,” Doherty told Amy Robach on Good Morning America after announcing her stage IV diagnosis. “It’s a bitter pill to swallow in a lot of ways.”
The Our House alum initially kept her illness under wraps, especially while filming BH90210, but later revealed that her costar Brian Austin Green “was the one person who I told, like, pretty quickly.”
As a result, he helped her get through the long days of filming, which she chose to do in order to give others with her terminal diagnosis hope.
“One of the reasons, along with Luke [Perry’s March 2019 death], 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,’” she said during the February GMA interview. “Like, you know, our life doesn’t end.”
The same month, Green, 47, exclusively told Us Weekly about Doherty’s health journey and his support of his former costar through it all.
“I mean, you know, cancer is not f–king easy for anyone. And I love Shannen, and we’ve always had a great relationship, and she’s strong,” the Anger Management alum told Us. “She’ll get through this and get out of this what she’s supposed to get out of this. Adversity only makes us stronger, if we let it, and it does with her, for sure.”
He added: “She’s a really f–king good person. She’s a really good person, and so she deserves all the well-wishers and all the friendships that she has.”
Doherty, who married Kurt Iswarienko in 2011, was previously diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2015.
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