Tori Spelling cried more when her “Beverly Hills, 90210” co-star Shannen Doherty died than when her father Aaron Spelling died.
“When Shan passed away, I had a much more emotional and outward reaction,” the actress admitted on Tuesday’s episode of the podcast “Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum.”
In particular, Doherty passed away in 2024 at the age of 53 after a long battle with breast cancer, while Aaron passed away in 2006 at the age of 83 due to complications from a stroke.
Tori speculated that she cried less over her father’s death because “all emotions were so repressed” at the time.
The 53-year-old didn’t know how to “cope” with her emotions and instead adopted a “just keep going” mindset.
She revealed, “My dad was everything to me. I mean, he’s still my hero and I think about him every day of my life.”
Tori thinks Doherty’s death “may have” been even “harder.” That’s because, Doherty says, “I’m getting older and starting to think about my mortality and what’s going to happen next.”
She added, “I’m like, ‘Wait, my friends my age are dying, and this can happen.'”
Tori also noted how uncomfortable it was for her and Doherty to go from being “best friends” to suddenly not being so.
“I can’t stop crying,” she said, adding, “This is so unlike me. But I grew up thinking that crying was a sign of weakness.”
The two became close in 1990 when Tori and Doherty appeared on Beverly Hills 90210, where they played Donna Martin and Brenda Walsh.
The two co-starred on the hit Fox series alongside Jennie Garth, Jason Priestley, Luke Perry, Ian Ziering, Brian Austin Green, and Gabriel Carteris until Doherty was released from his contract after season four in 1994.
The series was produced by Aaron and ran for six more seasons before ending in 2000.
Tori and Doherty briefly lost contact, but they “got back together” and “due to (fan) tradition, we became friends again before she passed away.”
“It meant so much to me and to her,” she exclaimed.
Tori told listeners that she attended a memorial service last summer on the first anniversary of Dougherty’s death.
The Scary Movie 2 star was able to “see her mother again and see her friends” for Doherty at the 2025 event, which brought back many “memories and tears.”
The “Beverly Hills, 90210” family lost another cast member in 2019 when Perry passed away from a stroke at age 52.
Tori said that when Perry died, she was “still in a ‘go for it, go for it’ mode.”
She paid tribute to the “Riverdale” alum via her Instagram Stories in 2023, writing, “Even though there could have been a million people there, he always made me feel like I was the only one. Good people are a rare breed. Sadly, I don’t know that many. He was one of them. … I’ve always wanted to meet him.”
The following year, Tori praised Doherty on an episode of her “Mispelled” podcast, brushing off past “stupid… misunderstandings” that led to “lost years” without the “Charmed” alum.
“None of that matters,” she said in a 2024 episode. “What’s important is the core friendship we had.”
