Fellow actress and cancer patient, Olivia Munn paid tribute to Shannen Doherty following the news that the Charmed star passed away over the weekend during her extensive battle with breast cancer.
While mourning the loss of “instant friend” Doherty, Munn reflected on how she and the late actress bonded over their similar cancer diagnoses.
“I am absolutely heartbroken over the passing of Shannen Doherty,” Olivia Munn wrote in her tribute on Instagram. “When I was first diagnosed with breast cancer, I remembered how she bravely let the world into her journey and I reached out to her. We became instant friends – which I honestly couldn’t comprehend at times because watching her on Beverly Hills, 90210 was everything to me when I was 10.”
Munn gushed a little about Doherty’s portrayal as Brenda Walsh on the teen drama, noting the actress is, was, and always will be an icon.
“We bonded through a shared battle and a desire to help other women,” Munn continued. “Looking back on the last text she sent me just a couple months ago, she asked how I was doing and if she could do anything for me… True to form, Shannen was offering her support even though she was in the final stage of fighting this horrific disease.”
Olivia Munn then declared that cancer is “really f—ing scary,” but Shannen Doherty had faced it with such dignity, strength, and grace. “I’m sending all of my love to her mother who was her best friend, hero, and champion every step of the way. Fly so high, my friend.”
Doherty’s publicist, Leslie Sloane, confirmed the actress lost her battle with cancer on Saturday, July 13. She was 53 years old.
Shannen Doherty Hoped to Have Another Three to Five Years of Life Amid Cancer Battle
Months before her death, Shannen Doherty opened up about her cancer battle and how she hoped to have another three to five years despite her health struggles.
“There’s going to be a lot more options that will give [us] another five years,” she reflected. The actress was hopeful about potentially receiving T-cell therapy and other future treatments under development. “Then in those five years, there’s a whole other group of options, and eventually there’s going to be a cure.”
While speaking to oncologist Dr. Lawrence Piro on her Let’s Be Clear podcast, Shannen Doherty and the doctor chatted about the different types of cancer therapies out there.
“I always say that it’s important to think of each therapy as a horse, and in a horse race, you want to ride every horse as long as it rides, and then you ride the next horse as much as possible,” Piro said. “You hope you make it a few laps, then there’s altogether another new set of horses to ride, to make the race that much longer.”
Shannen chimed in and said the horse analogy was a “really good one.”
“I’m riding those horses so I get to the fresh set of horses,” she added. “And I’m trying to get the one I’m on right now to last for as long as humanly possible.”