Shannen Doherty says she’s letting some things go as she lives with stage 4 breast cancer.
In the most recent episode of her podcast “Let’s Be Clear,” the actress, 52, talked about how her priorities have changed because of her illness.
“It doesn’t matter if you have a terminal disease or whatever, I believe, yes, obviously, you should live life to its fullest and embrace life while you’re alive,” Doherty said, before she began to get emotional. “But I guess it’s the cancer, for me, that has really made me take stock of my life and shift my priorities, and my priority at the moment is my mom.”
The “Beverly Hills 90210” star said she wants to make things “easier” for her mother, knowing that should she not survive cancer it will be incredibly hard for her mom Rosa.
“I don’t want her to have a bunch of stuff to deal with,” Doherty said. “I don’t want her to have four storage units full of furniture.”
“None of us really need all the stuff that we have,” she said. “And we can all do with a little bit of downsizing and not be a hoarder which I was becoming with all of my furniture.”
Doherty’s “obsession” with furniture is just one of her passions. She also talked about her dream of starting a horse rescue on her property in Tennessee, and how she was there recently to pack things up.
“It was really hard and really emotional because to a certain extent, I felt like I was giving up on this dream of building this property out, and putting a house for me and a house for my mom (there) and then extending the barn,” Doherty said.
And while her mother encouraged her to keep the property, Doherty said she’s decided to “downsize.”
Letting things go isn’t easy for her, but rather than focusing on material possessions, she’s using the money she’s getting from selling things off to do things like take trips with her mother and make memories.
“I don’t need this, it doesn’t really bring me any great joy, but what does bring me a lot of joy is taking my mom to the places that she’s always wanted to go to and building those memories with her,” Doherty said.
Last year the “Charmed” star announced on social media that cancer had spread to her brain and bones.
She was initially diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 before going into remission two years later. In 2020, Doherty announced that the cancer had returned.