Beverly Hills, 90210 star Shannen Doherty’s divorce has been the subject of rumors for months amid her cancer battle, and now, the actress is setting the record straight in her new podcast.
In the first episode of Let’s Be Clear, the Charmed actress opened up about her ongoing struggle with cancer, as well as what it was like to have brain surgery just after learning that her husband, photographer Kurt Iswarienko, had been unfaithful. (Doherty filed for divorce in April after 11 years of marriage.)
“I filed for divorce this year, 2023. I had brain surgery in 2023 as well,” Doherty said during Wednesday’s inaugural episode. Going into surgery, she said, “... I went into that surgery early in the morning, and I went in after I found out that my marriage was essentially over—that my husband had been carrying on an affair for two years.”
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Although Iswarienko wanted to accompany her to the procedure, Doherty said, she couldn’t have him there. “I felt so betrayed,” she said. “At the end of the day, I just felt so incredibly unloved by someone I was with for 14 years—by someone that I loved with all my heart.” Instead, she said, her brother, mother, and best friend were by her side—with many more friends praying from afar.
During the episode, Doherty reflected on just how much she’s endured this year—from brain surgery and radiation, to losing her hair, to the rigorous cancer protocols. To make matters more exhausting, she noted, she had to “go through all of that while trying to figure out if you’re going to get a friggin’ divorce and trying to get to the truth of that.”
As difficult as the news was to process, Doherty also seemed surprised by her own response.
“I have always said from the beginning, ‘If you cheat on me, you're out,’” the actress said. But when the moment came, she said, “I didn't walk away right away. I couldn’t. I was so confused, and I was also on steroids and a lot of stuff from brain surgery.”
Iswarienko was Doherty’s third husband; she was previously married to Rick Saloman from 2002 to 2003 and to Ashley Hamilton from 1993 to 1994. She and Iswarienko married in 2011. Amid their break-up, she revealed, she “also spoke to the girlfriend of two years that he cheated on me with, which is a whole ’nother episode.”
Faced with the prospect of divorce, Doherty said, “It was embarrassing. I am horrified that I can’t keep a relationship together. I think it is a reflection me, although this one... I think it’s on him.”
And yet, even after her past relationships and the dissolution of her marriage with Iswarienko, Doherty said, “I still believe in love.”
