Charmed actress Holly Marie Combs joined her former co-star and longtime friend Shannen Doherty for the second episode of her new podcast, Let’s Be Clear.
Doherty has been candidly discussing her love life, health, and career on the new podcast, which already included the bombshell reveal that she underwent brain surgery right after learning of her husband’s affair. Now, the actress is opening up about the rumored tension between her and her on-screen sister Alyssa Milano that spurred her to later leave Charmed.
Speaking to Combs on the podcast, Doherty claimed that Milano and her family tried to come in between them around Season 2 when Combs was hospitalized after a surgery. “It was really interesting of [her] trying to pull you away from me,” she told her former co-star.
At the time, Doherty was “in and out of the hospital nonstop” as she dealt with her father’s health issues. “Hospitals scared me to death. I waited 24 hours after your surgery to go and then it wasn’t even easy for me to get in. I was like being told I couldn’t even get in,” she said. “Alyssa and her mom were blocking people from seeing you and at the time you didn’t know.”
She continued, “I remember you texted me, ‘Dude are you going to come and see me?’ I also felt my anger at the situation of not being allowed to come see you and how a sort of family had swooped in.”
The tension from that incident “caused a weird divide” in their friendship that lasted throughout Season 2, Doherty said. “I think I cried every single night,” she admitted.
Combs acknowledged that her difficult childhood made it easy for her to get swept up with Milano’s family when they “tried to basically adopt me.”
But she added, “I also wanted everybody to get along, I wanted the show to be successful. There were no angels, there were no demons. We all had bad days, we all had good days. We all could have behaved better at certain points but there was a lack of awareness of a bigger broader picture.”
Doherty claimed there was a “competitiveness” and “lack of female support” between her and Milano that reminded her of her time on 90210. She also mentioned that she never bothered to read Milano’s memoir, titled Sorry Not Sorry, even though she knows the actress addressed their drama in the book.
“Obviously I’m never going to read her book, because it’s [titled] Sorry Not Sorry, so right there it tells me you’re not friggin’ sorry. Why even mention something in that case?” she said.
In 2021, ahead of the release of her memoir, Milano admitted she still had “some guilt” from that time, but claimed she and Doherty are in now in a more “cordial” place.
“I can take responsibility for a lot of our tension that we had, feeling that I was in competition rather than it being that sisterhood that the show was so much about,”she told Entertainment Tonight at the time. She later added, “I just wish I could’ve felt strong enough in who I was to recognize that [back] then.”
Combs’ and Doherty’s candid discussion was just the first entry of a two-part discussion between the TV sisters and longtime friends that will take place on Let’s Be Clear.