Shannen Doherty's Mom on Her Daughter's Death at 53: 'A Child Should Never Go Before a Parent'

Mar. 15, 2025

Rosa Doherty (left) and her daughter Shannen Doherty.Photo:Shannen Doherty/Instagram

Shannen Doherty/Instagram

Shannen Doherty’s mother is remembering her daughter nearly two months after she died at age 53.

“We’re very fortunate that we have all [these memories] and it’s like… it brings happiness and but it also brings… I can at any moment, just burst out because it’s such a loss,” Rosa shared aboutShannen’s deathon Saturday, July 13.

TheBeverly Hills, 90210star’s longtime publicist Leslie Sloane confirmed the sad news to PEOPLE on Sunday, July 14.

Shannen Doherty (left) and her mother Rosa.Shannen Doherty/Instagram

“It’s such a loss. And, you know, I’ve said it before. A parent should never go, you know, last longer than a child. A child should never go before a parent,” she continued.

“It’s things we have no control of. My faith just tells me it’s all in God’s hands. And that’s how Shannen felt, and that’s how she lived her life. I was like, ‘Aren’t you afraid to do this?’ She said, ‘Whatever is meant to happen is going to happen. I just have to be smart and take the precautions that I need to take, and then it’s in God’s hands,’ " Rosa said, adding, “And that’s how she lived her life.”

“With cancer, I mean, she fought this battle and she fought it so hard and she fought it, so much of that was with her faith. And she says, ‘I just have faith that I’m doing what I need to do,’ " Rosa shared.

Shannen Doherty (left) and Chris Cortazzo pictured in 2018.Phillip Faraone/Getty

Phillip Faraone/Getty

Cortazzo insisted Shannen had been “such a warrior through it all,” telling the podcast: “She fought so hard. In fact, I never thought she was gonna go. I just, I still can’t believe it, but she never complained. She went to chemo and [would] be so sick.”

“She didn’t want any sympathy from anyone. I’ve never seen anything like it in my entire life. She was a different breed,” the actress' best friend added.

While paying tribute to the late star, Cortazzo also called his longtime friend “one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen.”

“Her face it just everything about her was gorgeous. Like, beyond beyond gorgeous,” Cortazzo said.

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Shannen firstshared her breast cancer diagnosisin 2015. In 2017, she announced onInstagramshe was in remission, but later revealed in 2020 that the disease had come back as metastatic stage 4 cancer after learning it had returned the year prior. In June of 2023, the actresssharedthat the cancer had spread to her brain and that she had undergone surgery.

While speaking to PEOPLE in November 2023, Shannen insisted, “I’m not done with living. I’m not done with loving. I’m not done with creating. I’m not done with hopefully changing things for the better. I’m just not — I’m not done.”

“When you ask yourself, ‘Why me? Why did I get cancer?’ and then ‘Why did my cancer come back? Why am I stage 4?,’ that leads you to look for the bigger purpose in life,” she explained at the time.

source: people.com