Shannen Doherty and Tori Spelling dug into the past on the latest episode of Doherty’s podcast Let’s Be Clear, as they tried to pinpoint “the pivotal moment” that changed between them in the 2000s, because, as Doherty said, “one minute we were friends and then one minute we weren't.”
The former Beverly Hills, 90210 co-stars and close friends had a falling out while filming the series. And Doherty told Spelling on the podcast this week that the way she saw it, Spelling had been easily “swayed” against her by “two certain individuals,” and Spelling admitted that she was right. “You know I’m a swayer,” she said, “[that’s] my downfall.”
The two were inseparable in the earlier 90210 years, as Doherty recalled they were “like sisters, like best friends. We were always together.” She added, “If I was late, you were late.” Their being late brought up the differences in the way the two actresses were treated by their other co-stars. “I always got the brunt of [their complaints],” Doherty said, “Because they’re not going to say something to the producer’s daughter”—a reference to Aaron Spelling, who produced the show.
ADVERTISEMENT
They seemed to weather the on-set tension until their friendship was rocked by each other’s romantic relationships. Doherty said she and Spelling “were trying to figure out what was the weak point where you were able to be swayed and I kind of just went, ‘I can’t keep fighting for this,’” she told Spelling “and I think it was your boyfriend.” Spelling seemed surprised to hear that that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
“We both got boyfriends that ended up being friends, and they weren’t great,” Doherty said.
“Both had a lot of issues. They were better to each other than they were to us,” added Spelling. But things hit the fan after a double date trip to Mexico left Spelling in tears, as she’d found questionable photos on her beau’s phone. “You called me crying from your room and you came to my room and there was a point—I specifically remember looking at you and saying, ‘You have to end it with him, or I’m going to actually kill him. I can’t stand by.’”
Doherty went on to say that Spelling didn’t break up with him, and instead “got tortured for a little bit longer.” After that, they started to drift apart. “I don’t know if that was it. I don’t know if you know, you started listening to those other two people,” Doherty continued. As Doherty was in an abusive relationship herself, which she recently detailed in a previous episode, she admitted that “it felt odd to have lectured you and been like, ‘I’m gonna kill him if you don’t leave him,’ and then I find myself in a very similar situation as you did.”
Spelling said she chalks the end of their friendship to her inability to stand up for herself as others turned against Doherty. “I think when I was young, whoever was the alpha at the moment would sway me,” Spelling said. “And I think I couldn’t stand up for myself. I didn’t take ownership of anything. So it’s like, [be] nice, nice, nice to everyone. But it’s like you said: ‘Have a fucking opinion about something.’”
