Shannen Doherty Shares Where She Wants Her Ashes to Be Spread After Her Death
THE KELLY CLARKSON SHOW -- Episode 7I048 -- Pictured: Shannen Doherty -- (Photo by: Weiss Eubanks/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
Shannen Doherty doesn't mind getting into the "morbid" and "weird" weeds of her cancer and all that it means for the future.
In a vulnerable conversation with one of her best friends, Chris Cortazzo, on her podcast Let's Be Clear with Shannen Doherty, the Beverly Hills, 90210 alum is opening up about end-of-life planning amid her terminal Stage 4 metastatic cancer diagnosis, telling the real estate agent, who is also the executor of her will, what she'd like her funeral to look like and where she hopes her ashes will be laid to rest.
Following an intimate memorial service she described as "a love fest"—which she prefers to keep limited to those who actually loved her, rather than anyone showing up because "it's the politically correct thing to do and they don't want to look bad"—the actress wants to be cremated, with her ashes mixed in with the remains of both her father and her dog.
The 52-year-old is adamant that she doesn't want to be buried, though she hasn't "figured...out yet" where she wants her ashes to be spread. She agreed to let Cortazzo use some of the ashes to create a necklace, so he could carry "a little piece of [her] around [his] neck," but she's intrigued by the process in which some companies can "take your ashes and grow a tree" using them.
But the most important factor in the decision seems to be finding "a place that [she and her] dad...both really loved [that] meant a lot to [them]," which sounds like it'll be somewhere in Malibu, California, noting that her dad always wanted a Viking funeral.
Doherty was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer in 2019, several years after going into remission with the disease. It eventually metastasized to her brain, which led to intense rounds of radiation and even surgery to remove a tumor.
Along the way, she's been incredibly open about her health journey, doing her best to normalize conversations surrounding the illness and even death.
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