Shannen Doherty got emotional on Sunday as she addressed Alyssa Milano’s denial that she was involved in Doherty’s departure from Charmed.
While appearing on a panel for the cult show with costars Holly Marie Combs and Rose McGowan at MegaCon Orlando, Doherty teared up as she spoke out about the situation.
The Beverly Hills, 90210 star made headlines in December when she and Combs claimed Milano engineered Doherty’s firing from Charmed in 2001. Milano, 51, pushed back on the allegation during a Who’s the Boss? panel at MegaCon Orlando on Friday, saying that she’s “sad that people can’t move past it.”
“I did not have the power to get anyone fired,” Milano added in an Instagram post over the weekend, pinning the decision on late TV producer Aaron Spelling and the studio, who she said made the call after listening to a professional mediator assigned to the behind-the-scenes investigation’s recommendations. “Once Shannen left, we had 5 more successful seasons and I am forever grateful.”
But Doherty, 52, stood by her assertion on Sunday, telling MegaCon Orlando audiences that “a lot of things have been said and a lot have been very hurtful.”
The actress then read out notes she prepared the previous night, sharing she was telling her truth about the situation “as opposed to the narrative that others put out there for me.”
“Holly and I, we were not mean on the podcast — my podcast, Let’s Be Clear. In fact, we went in and we edited out anything that we felt would cause more drama,” Doherty explained. “We simply told the truth because the truth actually does matter. But we wanted to try to save you, the fans, from heartbreak as much as humanly possible.”
The actress, who is in treatment for Stage 4 breast cancer that has spread to her bones, said that her diagnosis has impacted her feelings on the matter. “At this point in my life with my health diagnosis — I’m sorry if I start crying — with fighting horrific disease every day of my life, it is also incredibly important to me that the truth actually be told as opposed to the narrative that others put out there for me,’ she said.
“We told it together, we told our truths and we are standing by our truths,” Doherty added of her and Combs’ claims. “There is no revisionist history happening in the truth that I know we told … There is no lateness to set, there is no mediator for months on end. I recall the facts as if I was still living in them.”
The Heathers star added that “what somebody else may call drama, is an actual trauma for me that I have lived with for an extremely long time” as she became emotional again.
“And it is only through my battle with cancer that I decided to address this trauma and be open and honest about so that I can actually heal from a livelihood that was taken away from me. A livelihood that was taken away from my family because somebody else wanted to be No. 1 on the call sheet. That is the truth,” Doherty concluded.
Speaking to the audience, McGowan, 50, added, “We’ve protected you for a long time, we’ve done it for as long as we could. All of us.”
She then shared a quote from comedian Katt Williams. “He has a wonderful saying, ‘Winners do not let losers rewrite history,’ ” McGowan said, before leaving the stage with Doherty and Combs, 50.
News of Milano’s alleged involvement in Doherty’s firing resurfaced in an episode of Doherty’s podcast in December, on which Combs was appearing.
As the two discussed Doherty’s rumored feud with Milano, Combs claimed that show producer Jonathan Levin admitted Milano was behind Doherty’s exit. “‘We didn’t mean to, but we’ve been backed into this corner — we’re basically in this position where it’s one or the other. We were told [by Alyssa] it’s her or [Shannen], and Alyssa has threatened to sue us for a hostile workplace environment,’ ” Combs recalled him saying.
Doherty was baffled by the move. “I lived a year after that sort of replaying everything in my brain and really trying to find those moments,” Doherty recalled of her time with Milano onset. “I don’t ever remember being mean to her on set.” She also claimed during that time that Milano and her mother stopped her from seeing Combs in the hospital after she underwent surgery for a growing uterine tumor.
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During her MegaCon panel appearance earlier in the week, Milano expressed her sadness for the impact this alleged feud had on Charmed fans.
“I don’t think it’s really that I’m sad for me or for my life or how it does or does not affect my life. I’m the most sad for the fans,” Milano said. “I am the most sad that a show that has meant so much to so many people has been tarnished by a toxicity that is still to this day almost a quarter of a century later still happening.”
“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 wrote on Instagram. “This is 15 movies and 13 TV shows ago for me. This was 11 years before my 15-year marriage and 13 years before having my first child. This was so long ago that any retelling of these stories from anyone is just revisionist history.”
PEOPLE reached out to reps for Milano, Combs and Doherty for comment but did not receive a response.
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