Shannen Doherty reveals financial struggle amid battle with Stage 4 cancer

Shannen Doherty isn’t just battling serious health issues - new court documents reveal her finances have taken a hit too.

Actress Shannen Doherty has a major health battle on her hands as she continues her quest to beat Stage 4 cancer.

But it seems her personal life is also causing angst for the Beverly Hills, 90210 star.

According to Us Weekly, Doherty, 53, filed paper work last Friday requesting a monthly spousal support payment of $23,000 from her ex-husband Kurt Iswarienko. She also wants him to contribute $14,000 to her legal fees.

Shannen Doherty and ex-husband Kurt Iswarienko divorced in 2023. Picture: Angela Weiss/Getty Images

The couple were married for 11 years before their split.

In court documents obtained by the outlet, the actress revealed that she has been unable to work since 2022 due to her illness and has been living off residual income from her hit TV show Charmed.

However, she was recently alerted that her residuals will drop significantly at the end of the month.

“As a result of my recurrent health issues, I have been largely unable to work and have no future employment prospects. Today, virtually all of the income I earn is residual income from work that I performed prior to marriage,” she wrote in the documents.

Doherty has bravely shared her cancer battle during TV interviews.

She has also opened up about her fight on social media.

“The majority of my residual income is from a television show called Charmed. I recently learned that Charmed will no longer be streaming on any major streaming platform after June 30, 2024. As a result, my future residual income will dramatically decrease.”

In another blow, Doherty said she will soon lose her Screen Actors Guild (SAG) insurance benefits because she hasn’t been working. This will be tough given her ongoing “exorbitant” medical bills, which she says last year alone totalled $33,000.

Doherty claims her photographer husband has the means to help with her medical expenses, but he would allegedly rather splash cash on his extravagant lifestyle with his agent, Collier Grimm, who Doherty is convinced is his girlfriend.

Doherty starred on Charmed with co-stars Alyssa Milano and Holly Marie Combs.

“While I have been unable to work, incurring exorbitant medical expenses not covered by insurance to undergo experimental treatments in hopes of prolonging my life, Kurt has been utilising the airplane, spending thousands of dollars at medical spas, jewellery stores, Gucci, and on flights for his ‘agent’, while simultaneously claiming that he has insufficient funds with which to support me,” Doherty alleged in the documents.

“Although Kurt’s income is substantially more than mine, he has not made any temporary spousal support payments and has made no contributions to my attorneys’ or accounting fees and costs since the time our divorce action was filed.”

She is also best known for playing Brenda Walsh in Beverly Hills, 90210. Picture: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

The star continues to attend events despite her cancer fight. Picture: Getty

She also claimed that Iswarienko is refusing to produce the correct paper work needed by the courts to help with her case.

“It is abundantly clear to me that Kurt is intentionally delaying settlement in hopes that I will not survive the divorce proceedings,” she claimed.

Doherty and Iswarienko were married in 2011 and she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. After undergoing treatment, she went into remission in 2017, but the cancer returned in 2020 and was more aggressive. The cancer has since spread to her brain and is now terminal

After 11 years of marriage, the couple announced their split in April 2023 with Doherty claiming he had been cheating on her in the last two years of their marriage, a claim he denies.