Alyssa Milano Says She Didn’t ‘Have the Power’ to Get Shannen Doherty Fired From ‘Charmed’
Alyssa Milano has clarified her recent remarks about her behind-the-scenes feud with Charmed costar Shannen Doherty.
“I don’t know one other show that has had the success that Charmed had where the cast still speaks ill of the experience a quarter of a century later. This is 15 movies and 13 TV shows ago for me,” Milano, 51, wrote via Instagram on Saturday, February 3. “This was 11 years before my 15-year marriage and 13 years before having my first child. This was so long ago that any retelling of these stories from anyone is just revisionist history.”
Doherty, 52, and former costar Holly Marie Combs previously claimed on a December 2023 episode of Doherty’s “Let’s Be Clear” podcast that Milano was the reason that the Beverly Hills, 90210 alum was fired from Charmed. Milano rebuffed the claims during a Friday, February 2, appearance at Megacon in Orlando while addressing the show’s toxicity.
“I will add, though, with absolute certainty — everything was documented. There was a professional mediator,” Milano wrote on Saturday, alleging that Doherty and Combs, 50, refused to “participate in any mediation” between the trio. “An on-set producer/babysitter who were both brought in to investigate all claims. It was then recommended by this mediator, after collecting testimony from cast AND crew — what changes should be made if the show was going to continue.”
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Milano further claimed that the TV network, film studio and creator Aaron Spelling “made the decision to protect the international hit that was Charmed.”
“I did not have the power to get anyone fired. Once Shannen left we had 5 more successful seasons and I am forever grateful,” Milano added. “As always, I wish Holly, Shannen and Rose [McGowan], peace and light in their personal and professional journeys. We all have bigger demons to fight.”
Charmed premiered on The WB in 1998, starring Doherty, Combs and Milano as the three Halliwell sisters, who discover that they are witches. (Milano, for her part, replaced Lori Rom as youngest sibling Phoebe after the pilot.) Doherty only appeared on three seasons of Charmed, later claiming that she did not get along well with Milano.
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“I think a lot of our struggle came from feeling that I was in competition rather than it being that sisterhood that the show was so much about,” Doherty told Entertainment Tonight in 2021. “And I have some guilt about my part in that.”
Nearly two years later, Combs alleged on Doherty’s podcast in 2023 that producer Jonathan Levin told her that Milano had threatened to leave the show if Doherty wasn’t let go. Doherty’s character was ultimately killed off in the season 3 finale and replaced with McGowan, now 50, as long-lost half-sister Paige Matthews.
