By Wonderwall.com Editors
10:42am PST, Dec 13, 2023
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Shannen Doherty was about to undergo brain surgery to remove a cancerous tumor in January 2023 when she discovered her husband of 11 years was cheating on her, the star said on her "Let's Be Clear" podcast premiere.
"I went into that surgery early in the morning … after I found out that my marriage was essentially over, that my husband had been carrying on an affair for two years," Shannen, 52, alleged on the Dec. 5 edition of her show.
She went on to detail the unimaginable challenge of navigating the end of her marriage to Kurt Iswarienko while battling stage 4 cancer.
Kurt "wanted to go" into surgery with her that morning, she said, but "I couldn't go into that surgery with him there. I felt so betrayed."
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Shannen Doherty was already "petrified" about having brain surgery, she said on her "Let's Be Clear" podcast, when her husband's alleged infidelity came to light. Though she wouldn't allow photographer Kurt Iswarienko to accompany her to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for the procedure, she said, her mother, brother and best friend, Chris, all stayed by her side. When she underwent radiation following the surgery, they continued to support her, but her emotional pain persisted.
"At the end of the day, I just felt so incredibly unloved by someone I was with for 14 years, by someone I loved with all my heart," the actress explained on her show.
"Just to have 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."
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Shannen Doherty was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. The cancer was in remission by 2017, but it returned, and in early 2020, Shannen announced she'd been diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. It wasn't until June 2023 that the actress revealed the cancer had spread to her brain, using Instagram to go public with news of the surgery she'd undergone months earlier.
By that point, she'd already filed for divorce. As she said on "Let's Be Clear with Shannen Doherty" on Dec. 5, she separated from husband Kurt Iswarienko in January 2023 but it wasn't until April that she filed for divorce.
"I was so confused and I was also on steroids and a lot of stuff from brain surgery because they didn't want my brain to swell," she explained on the podcast. "And honestly, it's still really hard. Yes, I made the decision to file for divorce, but I have a lot of memories with this person."
MORE: Stars who called it quits in 2023
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Shannen Doherty and Kurt Iswarienko began dating in 2009 before marrying in 2011. It was Shannen's third trip down the proverbial aisle: She was previously married to Ashley Hamilton from 1993 to 1994 and to Rick Salomon from 2002 to 2003.
That history didn't help matters when they split. Speaking to People magazine during her engagement to Kurt, Shannen said, "Marriage to me is such a gigantic commitment that it's not something I'd ever go into lightly anymore. I've learned my lesson."
News of her divorce filing broke in April 2023 a few hours after Shannen posted a quote on Instagram that read, "The only people who deserve to be in your life are the ones who treat you with love, kindness and total respect."
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When the actress discovered her then-husband's alleged infidelity, she recalled on "Let's Be Clear with Shannen Doherty" on Dec. 5, she grew "obsessed" with the details of his alleged affair. She recalled trying to get more information "through conversations, expecting someone to be honest with me."
She even "spoke to the girlfriend of two years that he cheated" with, she said, without naming them.
"If you share 14 years together and you cheated, doesn't that person deserve the absolute truth regardless of how much it hurts them?" Shannen asked.
"If they're the ones asking for it, if they're the ones saying, 'Listen, I get it. I may cry and I may get angry and this may really suck to hear, but I need to hear it because I need closure and this is how I get my closure."'
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Eventually, Shannen Doherty found the closure she needed, but the path to that point was no walk in the park.
"It was embarrassing. I am horrified that I can't keep a relationship together. I [thought] it is a reflection on me, but this one I think this one is on him. I've failed three times at marriage, but I still believe in love," she told listeners of her Dec. 5 podcast.
"I also take some responsibility for the demise of our marriage — actually, that's not true. Let me rephrase that: I do not take responsibility for the demise of our marriage, I take responsibility for some of the issues in our marriage," Shannen said, correcting herself.
"I take responsibility not only because of how I was but because of how cancer impacted my marriage and how it impacted him the second time around."
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In the wake of Shannen Doherty's claims that husband Kurt Iswarienko was unfaithful, a source close to Kurt spoke to TMZ on Dec. 12 to dispute it, insisting the pair had been living separate lives for two years before the actress underwent brain surgery and that Kurt had been upfront with the star about starting a new relationship with another woman while they were living in different states — him in Texas, her in California.
According to TMZ's sources, Kurt told Shannen about his new romance in early January 2023. Shannen fell a few days later, which led her to get an MRI, which is when her brain tumor was discovered.
Shannen took to Instagram on Dec. 12 to shoot down what sources told TMZ, calling it "an absolute lie."
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Though her cancer has spread to her bones, Shannen Doherty was nothing but positive about her work — and love — in a November 2023 cover story in People magazine. She was also confident about having closed the chapter on her marriage.
"There's always a trigger, just a moment that you have, somebody says something to you, your ex says one thing to you and you're like, 'OK, yeah, I'm good. I'm good.' I have closure and I can move on in a really healthy way," she told the outlet.
"I don't think I'm going to be single forever," Shannen added later in the interview. "I have to love myself and reckon with the past, really, before I can move forward, and now I'm pretty sure I'll meet somebody — hopefully soon."
In the meantime, she hopes her podcast, "Let's Be Clear with Shannen Doherty," will serve as a platform for cancer awareness and education.
