Beverly Hills 90210 star Shannon Doherty says ‘horrible marriage’ contributed to her firing from the show

Beverly Hills 90210 star Shannon Doherty has said spoken about being fired from the show, admitting her ‘horrible marriage’ contributed to her sudden exit.

Doherty, 52, starred in the hit teen series as Brenda Walsh, but saw her character written out after season four.

Speaking about her time on the show in the latest episode of her Let’s Be Clear With Shannen Doherty podcast, she explained that there were factors behind the scenes that had started to impact her job.

This includes her brief marriage to actor fellow Ashley Hamilton, having filed for divorce just five months after tying the knot in October 1993.

Speaking to former co-star Jason Priestley, who played Brandon Walsh, Doherty explained: "I definitely went through a lot of growing pains on that show.

"There was beautiful moments for me, and there were really hard moments for me.

Let's Be Clear With Shannen Doherty/Instagram/@theshando

“Towards my last season, I was in a really horrible marriage and there were things transpiring in that marriage that made it very hard for me to consistently be on time for work.

“And I know that that became a very big problem for the rest of you, because as it should be, because if everybody else is on time and you're waiting for one person, it sucks."

Hamilton, 49, has previously spoken out about his struggles with addiction, telling People back in 2016 that he had some ‘really hard times’, but that his famous father – veteran actor George Hamilton – ‘never gave up’ on him.

Doherty acknowledged that she ‘probably wasn’t’ forthcoming enough about the issues she was having to deal with, saying she didn’t think anyone knew, for instance, that her father was ‘super sick’.

“And I don't think anybody knew that my husband was a massive drug addict,” she added.

“[...] And it was all-consuming for me. I didn't even want to leave the house because I was scared that he would go and get drugs."

Fox

While Doherty felt the problems weren’t ‘anybody’s responsibility’ but hers, she said she wished someone had stepped in to explain the repercussions to her at the time – something that Priestley, who played her on-screen brother, echoed.

Doherty continued: "I sort of wish I would have been sat down and sort of looked at and said, 'Listen, the end result is going to be this: you are going to get fired and none of us are willing to put up with it anymore.

"'And I understand that you have an issue in your personal life, but that also can't bleed into work and you need to get your s*** together!'"

Priestley said it was an ‘incredibly difficult’ time for the cast, but that there had been ‘so many unknowns’.

“I wish I had known about more about what was happening in your personal life at the time, because I could have hopefully managed it with more compassion and more caring,” he told Doherty.

“But we only knew what we knew.”

Tyla has reached out to a representative for Anthony Hamilton for comment.

Topics: TV And Film, Celebrity

Jess Hardiman

Jess is Entertainment Desk Lead at LADbible Group. She graduated from Manchester University with a degree in Film Studies, English Language and Linguistics. You can contact Jess at [email protected].

@Jess_Hardiman