Shannen Doherty's pals pay heartbreaking tribute to '90210' star one year after her death

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Shannen Doherty’s co-stars and friends are sharing their heartbreaking tributes to the Beverly Hills, 90210 star one year after her death.

Doherty died on July 13, 2024, at age 53 following a years-long battle with cancer.

“Grief is weird,” Doherty’s 90210 castmate Tori Spelling wrote in an emotional Instagram message. “It presents itself in different ways and at different times but never fades. Just like your memory. In fact, it burns epically in my soul more and more as the days pass.”

Ian Ziering, who did not share a tribute to Doherty after her death, said the actress was “fierce, funny” and “full of life” in his own Instagram post.

He also said losing her in his life “hit me like a freight train.”

“When I first heard she was sick, we had nearly a decade more with her,” he said of Doherty, who was first diagnosed with  breast cancer in 2015. “And even then, most of the updates sounded less like ‘Shannen’s fighting cancer’ and more like ‘cancer picked the wrong woman.’ That was her way—strong, defiant, take-no-prisoners tough.”

Ziering, who shared his tribute on Instagram, said he “truly believed she was going to pull off one more miracle.”

“When she died a year ago, I didn’t post anything. And yes, some people criticized that. To them I say: grief isn’t a performance. It’s personal. Let people grieve how they grieve,” he said of his decision to mourn his friend privately.

“I miss Shannen,” he continued. “We clashed now and then in the early years of 90210 — two strong personalities will do that — but we always had respect. I was the wisecracking comic relief; she was the beautiful chaos, the after-hours headline, the girl who could trash a hotel room and make the tabloids love her for it. (Stop laughing, Shan. You know it’s true.)”

Ziering, who played Steve Sanders on the teen drama, admitted it has been hard seeing his 90210 colleagues after losing Doherty and Luke Perry, who died in 2019 at age 52.

“That kind of loss doesn’t fade. It just rearranges the furniture in your heart,” he wrote.

He said as they aged, their relationship changed. “We mellowed. Grew up. Understood what we’d been part of and what we each brought to the table. I’ll never forget when she and Jennie (Garth) surprised me at the Chippendales show in Vegas. God, we laughed so hard. It was one of those nights that stays with you,” he said.

Ziering concluded his note by telling Doherty that he “often” thinks about her.

“Your grit. Your fire. Your kind heart that so few really got to see. I still carry all of it with me,” he penned. “Rest easy, Shan. ❤️”

Sarah Michelle Gellar also shared a montage of photos with her late friend on Instagram set to Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth’s emotional song See You Again.

Rose McGowan also paid tribute to her Charmed co-star, writing in part, “One year today you had to fly, but we on the physical plane of existence, think about you every day with gratitude and love.”

Holly Marie Combs, who also co-starred with Doherty on Charmed, wrote that it only feels like “a minute” since her death. “You still light the way for so many,” she said. “And you are missed by so many.”

After nearly a decade battling cancer, Doherty died “surrounded by her loved ones as well as her dog, Bowie,” her publicist confirmed last July.

The Mallrats star had been open about her health struggles, crediting her positive outlook with helping her mental and physical health as she continued to fight the cancer that had spread to her brain and bones.

“Every day is a gift, and there are so many new things in the works that I think hope is always there,” she told PEOPLE in November 2023. “I think it’s so important. Listen, I can die today, I can die in 20 years, I don’t know. I can die walking outside of my house and a tree falling on me or a bus hitting me, whatever. Or I can die of cancer. But all I can do is live each day in as much as a positive manner with hope as I can and embrace it and feel like, ‘Wow, I get to wake up again today, what can I do?’”

But the month before she died, Doherty fought back tears when she revealed she was going to have to undergo a new round of chemotherapy treatment during an episode of her Let’s Be Clear podcast.

“I thought I was fine, cut to now. I am having to go back on chemo,” she said in a clip posted to her Instagram on June 24th. “I now know that I can’t do it the way that I was doing it … The idea of going through that all over again has wrecked me.”

Doherty went on to add that she didn’t know how long the treatment would last or “if after three months, it’s not working, if we’re gonna change again.”

“That’s not something that I can predict. It’s not something my doctors can predict. And it’s scary,” she said.

mdaniell@postmedia.com