Overview
- Spelling told the Inside of You podcast on June 30 that she had a stronger outward emotional reaction to Shannen Doherty’s July 2024 death than to the 2006 death of her father Aaron Spelling.
- She said she was younger when her father died and had repressed her feelings then, so she kept a ‘go on’ mindset after Aaron Spelling’s death.
- Spelling described Doherty’s death at age 53 after a yearslong breast cancer battle as the loss that broke through her emotional restraint and left her unable to stop crying.
- The two actresses had been childhood friends who drifted apart during Beverly Hills, 90210 but reconnected at fan conventions, and Spelling said their renewed bond and her attendance at Doherty’s first anniversary memorial deepened her grief.
- The episode highlights how aging, reopened relationships and public memorials have changed Spelling’s way of grieving and prompted her to speak more openly about loss and mortality.