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Shannen Doherty Brings Chelsea Handler to Tears Talking About Her Battle With Cancer

By Jackie Willis
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Shannen Doherty has a totally new perspective on life after being diagnosed with breast cancer.

The former Beverly Hills, 90210 star sat down with Chelsea Handler on her Netflix show, and the 41-year-old comedian tears up as Doherty talks about her battle with the disease. "I think what's beautiful and hard and interesting about cancer is that it tears you down and builds you, and tears you down and builds you and it," she explains. "It remakes you so many different times."


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"So the person I thought I was supposed to be or was going to be or who I thought I was six months ago is now somebody completely different," the 45-year-old actress continues. ''And I realize, 'Wow, I really thought that I was so brave and so gracious this entire time and really I was just hiding.'"

As she spoke, Handler starts to break down. "I mean alright, hold on a second, f**k," she exclaims as she tries to hold back the tears. "Don't cry," Doherty responds.

As for her husband Kurt Iswarienko, Doherty says she worries how her cancer is impacting him. "This was very hard and not humbling, because I've already been humbled by cancer," she says.
"It was hard in the sense of rethinking sort of who you are and how you come to terms with who are now and accepting it and looking at your husband and thinking like, 'Dude, I'm so sorry.'"


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In an interview with ET in July, Doherty opened up about taking her journey day by day. "I don't look past today," she said. "I want to believe that if I fight, I'm gonna be OK."


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"The unknown is always the scariest part," she added. "Is the chemo going to work? Is the radiation going to work? You know, am I going to have to go through this again, or am I going to get secondary cancer? Everything else is manageable. Pain is manageable, you know living without a breast is manageable, it's the worry of your future and how your future is going to affect the people that you love."