Jennie Garth Recalls Final Conversation With Shannen Doherty Before Her Death

In light of Shannen Doherty‘s passing on Saturday (July 13), Jennie Garth has opened up about her “complicated” relationship with her former Beverly Hills, 90210 castmate and how the two actresses still loved each other despite their ups and downs.

On the most recent episode of her I Choose Me With Jennie Garth podcast, the What I Like About You alum reflected on her friendship with Doherty, who died on Saturday after a long battle with breast cancer.

“Since it happened when I was out of town, it didn’t feel real,” Garth said on receiving the news about Doherty’s passing. “There’s no way I would open my Instagram or do any kind of looking because it was just too much. My phone was blowing up with people sending their condolences, which is so kind, but it just kept hitting.”

She described first hearing the news as “literally like someone punched me in the stomach.”

Even though the world knew Doherty was sick, Garth said she had convinced herself her friend would get better. “I don’t know why, but I thought she would get better, that she would kick it. She’s the strongest woman around and I just never thought this would happen,” Garth explained. “I listened to her podcast, and I knew she was undergoing this new chapter in her battle, more chemotherapy, and I could tell she was nervous, but I also saw a glimmer of hope. If she was hopeful, I could be hopeful too.”

Luke Perry, Shannen Doherty, Jason Priestley and Jennie Garth on Beverly Hills, 90210; Mark Sennet/Getty Images

After the news of Doherty’s passing spread, Garth said Jason Priestley was the first to message in the 90210 group chat. “He was the first one to reach out to everybody and say ‘I love you guys’ and ‘this is insane’ and ‘no more, no more loss.'”

“I think that’s one of the hardest parts for me, that it’s now two from our original cast [that have died],” she continued, referring to the passing of fellow 90210 alum Luke Perry. “This was like, you know, when you have a group shot, and you can imagine that person in the shot fading away. I can’t really wrap my head around it.”

Garth said Doherty’s passing brought up all those old feelings of when Perry died in 2019.

“I never spoke publicly about Luke’s passing. I didn’t put up a post or anything. I didn’t know how to handle that and didn’t feel compelled to put my feelings out there,” she shared. “This one felt different but also the same. When death comes knocking at your door causing grief, it’s the same feeling… however you feel grief, it’s the same feeling. It takes you back to any previous pain.”

As for her memories of Doherty, Garth said that she “will always have respect for her” and loved “her willingness to voice her opinions and stand up for people that needed to be stood up for.”

“She was one of the most generous people I know,” Garth continued. “She was really kind and generous. And strong. Sometimes her strength got in her way and didn’t look the way other people wanted it to look.”

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Garth stated how Doherty “was always a fighter” and that “she fought for things that mattered to her and people that mattered to her.”

“I also keep remembering the last words that she said to me. It was just an example of even though our relationship was complicated at times or convoluted at times by outside forces that just sort of crept in for us both, we still loved each other,” Garth added.

She shared a memory from ’90s Con, where Doherty invited friends and castmates onto a private plane she was taking back to Los Angeles.

“And no one asked me, and I was feeling a little ‘ouch’ just from not being asked,” Garth explained. “But [Doherty] came up to me right before they left, and she was like, ‘We’re going on this plane. You’re welcome to come with us, Jennie.’ And I can see her saying it.”