Shannen Doherty’s cancer battle has made her marriage stronger.
The 45-year-old actress was diagnosed with breast cancer in February 2015 and couldn’t have got through her gruelling treatment if it wasn’t for the support of her husband of five years, photographer Kurt Iswarienko.
She said: "I could not have gotten through this without my husband.
"My marriage was always strong, but it’s made my marriage a thousand times stronger. He’s never missed a chemo. He’s never missed a sick day."
Shannen – who has undergone three out of eight rounds of chemotherapy and will then embark on a course of radiotherapy after the disease spread to her lymph nodes – recalled the "horrible" phone call she made to tell her spouse of her diagnosis.
She told ‘Entertainment Tonight’: "I called him, which was horrible of me. I was in the car. I was with my mom, and the doctor called me and I’m, you know, ‘I’m going to wait until I see him,’ and I just couldn’t. So I picked up the phone and I called him and he was like, ‘Where are you?’ "
When she arrived home, Kurt was waiting on the driveway and instantly offered the support she needed.
She recalled: "[He] hugged me and said, ‘We are going to get through this. You are going to be OK. We are going to get through this, you’re strong and you’re powerful and you’re not going anywhere. You have so much to do in your life. We are going to get through it as a family.’ "
And the former ‘Beverly HIlls, 90210’ actress is thankful to also have her mother Rosa for support.
She said: "Thank God she is there. She is so strong, and my mom is like a Steel Magnolia. She is a Southern girl and she puts on this very strong face with me. She is constantly looking stuff up and, you know, she will force-feed me Gatorade chips. Her and my husband tag team."
While she is trying to remain positive about the future, Shannen admitted she went through a "short phase" of being convinced she wouldn’t live beyond five years after her diagnosis.
She said: "Initially I was like, ‘I’m strong. I got this!’.
"And then, as time sort of went by, I started thinking that I wasn’t going to live. That was the next phase. I sat down with my husband, I remember we were in New York together, we were at this Italian restaurant in Brooklyn, and I looked at him and I said, ‘You better enjoy every single second that you have with me … ’cause I’m going to be dead in five years.’
"He just burst out crying and was like, ‘You can’t say that.’
"That phase was short, thank God. That was a short, short phase that I think my family and my friends got me through."
Shannen Doherty’s marriage is stronger
