How Shannen Doherty's Cancer 'Killed' Her Sex Drive

Transcript

00:00 "When meds take your libido away or it makes things not as pleasant, like sex doesn't feel

00:05 as good, whatever it is, things aren't working and this isn't the life that I want to live.

00:10 And I also don't want my husband to live like this."

00:14 Shannon Doherty getting candid about cancer's effect on her sex drive during her marriage.

00:19 "We're not divorced yet.

00:20 We're in the middle of a divorce.

00:21 I never know what to call him."

00:22 "You have to have a sense of humor.

00:24 You have to.

00:25 Without it, it becomes very depressing."

00:28 The Beverly Hills 90210 star gets into it on her Let's Be Clear podcast, telling a friend

00:33 how her health battles devastated her body confidence.

00:37 "Just getting older, all of it impacts not just your exterior, and then you add to that

00:44 cancer meds, you add to that chemo, and it just zaps you of everything.

00:53 And it takes away your confidence.

00:56 It takes away your identity.

00:59 I, for the last solid couple of years, probably four years, have felt like a boy."

01:06 "You're one hot looking boy."

01:08 "Thank you."

01:09 This comes as Shannon navigates her divorce from Kurt Asouryenko after 11 years of marriage,

01:14 during which her body image issues made a bad situation worse.

01:18 "I mean, listen, when you're feeling not great about yourself, that's going to kill

01:22 your libido, but then when it actually impacts your libido, when meds take your libido away,

01:28 or it makes things not as pleasant, like sex doesn't feel as good, whatever it is, because

01:34 then I'm not engaging with full confidence, which is a problem in a relationship.

01:40 It was impacting me."

01:41 "I've been thrown a lot of curveballs, and ones that I never expected in a million years."

01:49 One of those curveballs?

01:50 Shannon's claim last year that Kurt was unfaithful.

01:53 The allegation coming as she announced her stage 4 breast cancer had spread to her brain.

01:57 "Because it was like a one-two punch.

01:59 It came like the news about your brain cancer and the divorce came at the same time to fans."

02:05 "Yes, and obviously, seemingly came at the same time for you too."

02:09 "It was like maybe, you know, two or three days apart.

02:12 So yeah, it was pretty brutal."

02:13 And while their divorce is ongoing, Shannon's feeling better inside and out in her next

02:18 chapter.

02:19 "This is me, this is what happens when you have cancer, and I think that just this time

02:23 around, maybe it's going through a divorce, maybe it's being my age, maybe it's all of

02:27 it, but I wanted to like, I'm trying to feel somewhat normal, and I'm trying to like myself

02:35 more."

02:36 "I'm trying to feel normal."

02:39 (cymbal crash)