SHANNEN DOHERTY: BREAKING THE BITCH MOULD

Breaking the Bitch Mould by Shannen Doherty

Shannen Doherty's 90210 cast mates once famously despised her and now she's left her hit TV show Charmed amid reports of on-set tension.  In a GLAMOUR exclusive, Shannen sets the record straight about her 'difficult' image.

I left 90210 eight years ago, but I'm still accused of being a bitch and a shallow party girl.  Now it's time to set the record straight.

During my time on 90210 people constantly confused me with my bitchy character Brenda.  I was faced with horrendous tabloid stories, accusing me of being a wild child and nastier than Brenda.  That hurt.

I coped with the newspapers attacking me, but I couldn't take the back-stabbing from some of the 90210 cast.  It got out of control.

It was all fine, until the show became a massive hit overnight and suddenly, Jason (Priestley), Luke (Perry) and myself were singled out from the rest of the cast and put on the cover of magazines like Rolling Stone.  It was great for us, but some of the others got jealous and petty.  I had never dealt with that amount of bitching and competitiveness in my entire life.  I was so miserable, I left.

I've changed a lot since.  I was young then and said the first thing that came to mind.  But I want you to know I've never been the bitch people have made me out to be.  I was feisty and outspoken, but I'm not two-faced, even though Hollywood may prefer it if I were.

I also rebelled against the press.  I thought, "You want to make up stories about me?  I'll give you something to write about," and went out partying all the time.  But it backfired and I was labelled party-mad, so I became a hermit.  This time of my life was very hard to deal with.  People were being so nasty about me, and there were very few people I could trust.  I turned to my parents for advice and they told me to hold my chin up, saying as long as you're happy with yourself, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks.  And my good friends were fantastic - they just laughed it all off.

90210 friends & enemies

I still see some of the old 90210 cast.  I love and speak to Jason, who surprised me and visited the set of Charmed recently.  He's always been very supportive.  I also like Luke, who's married and has a farm in Tennessee.  He just leads his life as he wishes, which I respect.  And I'm always thrilled to bump into Tori Spelling - she's adorable.  The others I never want to see again.  I bumped into one of the girls, who I'll leave unnamed, recently.  I just said, "Great seeing you," and left.  I wasn't going to pretend to be her friend, when inside I was boiling.

My marriage to Ashley Hamilton - the truth

We got married after 2 weeks of knowing each other and divorced after 6 months.  People ask, "What the hell were you doing?"  The truth is, I don't really know.  One day we were in his car and he turned to me and said, "Let's get married."  I thought he was joking and went "Yeah!"  But he called me later and said, "I'm really into this marriage thing."  And that was that.

It wasn't even like a wedding, it was just a party at my house.  And if I'm honest, my gut feeling told me it was wrong.  Just before the ceremony, I turned to my friend - who's no longer a friend - and said I couldn't go through with it.  For some reason she insisted, "You have to, because everyone's here."  So I did.  It was 6 months of hell.

I didn't know Ashley at all.  I didn't know he was a drug addict.  (Ashley collapsed from an overdose in '95.)  People call me a hypocrite because I've tried drugs, but only to experiment.  I've never had a substance-abuse problem, as papers have claimed.  That's just another thing people assume about me.

I still hope to get married again someday, and have children.  But for now, I'm enjoying being single.  The experience taught me that you have to know somebody inside-out before you commit, because small habits may annoy you so much you can't live with them.

The divorce was traumatic.  I was overwhelmed by a feeling of failure.  My parents have been married for 35 years and they're still going strong, so for me it was really like, "God, I screwed that up."

The truth about my temper

In the papers I was accused of pulling a gun on my ex-fiancé Dean Jay Factor.  I'm stating here that it didn't happen.  Though I did lose my temper with him in a fight, I'm petrified of guns; I hate them.  I could've sued the newspapers for their lies, which would've taken about a year, or just ignore it.  So I chose to ignore it.

Few people get to see how emotionally vulnerable I am.  The biggest misconception about me is that I'm tough.  In reality, I'll walk away from every fight because I'll get my ass kicked, and because it's not worth it.  That's not to say I won't defend myself, because I will.

It was reported that I smashed a bottle over a man's car.  Afterwards a court ordered me to attend anger therapy.  It was hilarious.  The therapist cried throughout, telling me her problems and wrote to the court saying, "This girl is so far from angry.  She was defending herself against a man who was threatening her.  What do you expect?"

My bad-girl image makes me laugh - I'm one of the tamest human beings you'll ever meet.  We all have that wild side, and maybe once or twice a year I'll go out and get a little crazy.  But for the most part I'll be at home scrubbing my floors.  That's as wild as I get these days. BACK TO THE TOP