Shannen Doherty 's shock exit after the third season of Charmed spurred rumors of a bitter feud between her and Alyssa Milano , but Holly Marie Combs insists she didn't love Charmed any less.
The actress, who plays Prue Halliwell on the show, died on July 13 at age 53 from complications with cancer. As a result, her co-stars are reflecting on the time they spent together on set. An emotional Holly Marie Combs, who played Piper Halliwell, seemed to tear up while discussing her on-screen sister during Monday's episode of House of Halliwell podcast .
"I don't think anybody loved Charmed more than she did and that's a fact," she said. However, it doesn't quite lineup with reports of a feud and bad blood break from the show that spiraled for years after Rose McGowan (Paige Matthews) replaced her.
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Shannen entered the Charmed set already on rocky terms with show creator Aaron Spelling, but she embraced the role as much as possible. However, after she left, the actress confessed that, behind the scenes, everything wasn't as fun as it might have seemed. “There was too much drama on the set and not enough passion for the work,” Shannen told Entertainment Tonight in 2001 . “I’m 30 years old and I don’t have time for drama in my life anymore.”
Alyssa Milano, who played Phoebe Halliwell, hit back at her. “I think it’s unfortunate that she left, and that she needed to bad-mouth everyone involved and the audience. She sounds really angry. I just hope I didn’t contribute to that anger," she told EW before Season 4. Alyssa quipped about Shannen's departure again in 2013, explaining that she wasn't sure if the star was fired.
In Dec. 2023, Holly claimed in an episode of Let's Be Clear that a producer told her that they were forced to choose between Alyssa and Shannen due to the on set tensions and feud. In fact, she claimed Alyssa threatened to sue. Alyssa, though, claimed that this story wasn't exactly accurate. In Feb. 2024, she wrote on Instagram, “I don’t know one other show that has had the success that Charmed had where the cast still speaks ill of the experience a quarter of a century later."
She additionally claimed that there was an internal investigation that ensued which resulted in the changes on set. "I did not have the power to get anyone fired," she insisted.
Shannen responded the next day. At Mega Con, she expressed that her cancer diagnosis made it important to her for the "truth" to be public. She said: “I recall the facts as if I were still living in them, and what I will say is that what somebody else may call drama is an actual trauma for me that I have lived with for an extremely long time."
After Shannen's death, Alyssa told EW in a statement: "It's no secret that Shannen and I had a complicated relationship, but at its core was someone I deeply respected and was in awe of. She was a talented actress, beloved by many, and the world is less without her. My condolences to all who loved her."
During Monday's episode of the reflective podcast, Brian Krause (Leo Wyatt) and Holly mourned their co-star and co-podcast host who was only about of the production for the first episode. "I don't wanna say this is a special episode because that doesn't feel right. This is a tribute to someone we all love very much," Brian said.
Holly said: "One of the last times I was with her, we actually watched the first two episodes together like we were freaking teenagers again and we sat in her office and watched the episodes together before we recorded this and I've had a little bit of time to reflect on that, and everything worked out. I've had a little bit of time to reflect on that and how everything worked out
"I think she did as much as she could in the time that she had, but we did think we had more time and that's the really sad part is, you know, we had big, big plans for this year. And she didn't think she was going anywhere anytime soon. It sounds terribly cliché … until it happens to you, you always think you have more time."
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