Shannen Doherty let the world see a really intimate moment when she shaved her head last week and shared the pictures on Instagram. Now, she’s opening up even more about her fight against breast cancer in an exclusive interview set to air on Entertainment Tonight on Monday, Aug. 1.
The trailer is tear-jerking.
For any woman who’s been through cancer, lost someone to cancer or even almost lost someone to cancer, it’s going to be especially emotional to watch.
“I started thinking that I wasn’t going to live… I don’t look past today,” she admits. And you just want to crumble. It’s rare to see celebrities shows their raw emotions, and that’s what makes this so bittersweet. She has a great platform to share her struggle and inspire other women; we just wish she didn’t have the struggle to begin with.
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Doherty also touches on the very real struggle of identity during cancer treatment. We usually hear more about chemo and radiation and mastectomies — all tough pills to swallow — but we don’t talk as often about the fact that cancer can so easily strip your identity.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever look like me again,” she says. When you face things like losing your breasts and your hair, and those things have been part of you for decades, you have to redefine your sense of self. No easy feat.
“I want to believe that if I fight, I’m going be OK,” she says. Knowing that has to be a hard spirit to keep up because we’re only human, it’s nice to see that she has support from her family and friends to believe it for her even if she’s not feeling so positive.
More: 7 things to know about the new groundbreaking breast cancer treatment
Doherty’s Beverly Hills 90210 co-star Jason Priestley spoke out this week, telling Entertainment Tonight, “What she did the other day, shaving her head and posting the pictures and everything, that was incredibly brave. Shannen’s a strong kid and a tough fighter, and I know that she’s going to come through this fight and she’s going to be OK.”
The trailer teases a new development in her diagnosis, and our hearts are beaming out to Doherty right now.
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