Rose McGowan Reflects On Her Friendship With Shannen Doherty: “I Wish We Had More Time”

Rose McGowan recently opened up about her friendship with the late Shannen Doherty, expressing a deep sense of regret that their bond didn’t form sooner. The 50-year-old actress shared her thoughts on the latest episode of the Let’s Be Clear With Shannen Doherty podcast, which continues to be produced by Shannen’s mother and friends following her passing at 53 from cancer in July.

“If I have any regrets, I wish I could have gotten to know her sooner,” Rose admitted, adding, “I don’t know how it would have happened, but I wish we could have.” 

Rose’s reflection comes after a complicated history between the two, which began when she joined Charmed following Shannen’s dramatic exit from the series in 2001.

Rose revealed that she and Shannen were unfairly pitted against each other during their time on Charmed. “We were really pitted against each other,” she explained. “I was just told she was fired, and nobody talked about her.” 

Despite this, Rose refused to engage in the negativity. According to her, “They wanted me to start a war with her, and I was like, ‘Absolutely not. I will not start a war with her.’ And to her credit, she absolutely did not do that either.”

Shannen, who had courageously battled breast cancer since 2015, was someone Rose admired deeply. 

Recalling how their friendship deepened in Shannen’s final year and a half, Rose called the time they shared together “an amazing gift.”

Rose also addressed a common misconception about Shannen. “The biggest misconception about her was that she was hard. But at the same time, it was the truth, but it’s not who she was natively. And I would say that was the biggest misconception about me as well. We both just like to laugh. Soft, underneath it all.”

Shannen’s battle with cancer was a long and grueling one. After being diagnosed in 2015, she achieved remission following two years of chemotherapy. However, the disease returned in 2020 as stage IV breast cancer. By November 2023, Shannen revealed that the cancer had spread to her bones, and in July 2024, she tragically passed away.

During her final weeks, Shannen was candid about the struggles she faced. In a June 24 episode of her podcast, she opened up about the difficulty of returning to chemotherapy. “I’m having to go back on chemo and it’s really hard,” Shannen confessed. “The idea of going through that all over again has wrecked me.”

Rose, along with many others, was devastated by Shannen’s passing. “I can’t stop crying,” Rose wrote on Instagram, sharing her grief. “A world without Shannen Doherty is inconceivable.” She described Shannen as having “the heart of a lion” and emphasized that “passion for craft is often mislabeled as trouble. Shannen was passion.”

Rose’s heartfelt tribute highlighted the deep respect and admiration she had for Shannen, despite the rocky start to their relationship. Reflecting on their time together, Rose shared, “I met her in the ’90s and was awed. Getting to really know her later in life, a beautiful gift.”