Shannen Doherty fought until the end of her life to get out of her marriage
Shannen Doherty fought from her deathbed to divorce her ‘cheater’ husband as the Charmed star’s doctor revealed ‘she wasn’t ready to leave.’
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Shannen Doherty was battling her ex from her deathbed, according to new reports.
The Charmed star died peacefully at home in Malibu last weekend, surrounded by loved ones, but they feared her estranged husband would try to claim Doherty’s estate if the divorce was not immediately pushed through.
Sources say close friends of the beloved Beverly Hills 90210 star were worried that husband Kurt Iswarienko, whom the actress claimed had cheated on her, would be eligible to take over her multimillion-dollar fortune.
The couple’s divorce was signed off only hours before Doherty died at age 53, after a nine-year battle with breast cancer that eventually spread to her brain and bones.
“Shannen died before the divorce could be rubber-stamped in the courts, a friend told Page Six. “All we wanted was for Shannen to get her final wish — to die as a divorced woman.”
Court papers show that Doherty signed off on the filing on Friday, 12 July. However, it was not finalised at the time of the star’s death on Saturday night.
Only a small group of loved ones knew that Doherty’s health had taken a turn for the worse in recent weeks. Famed Hollywood lawyer Laura Wasser worked tirelessly in the week before the actress’s death to ensure the divorce could be filed.
“Laura Wasser, honestly, was valiant when it became clear that it was time to get the divorce done,” said the friend.
“Shannen’s friends were furious at Kurt. He was a cheater and having an affair,” said an insider. “She believed he cheated on her with multiple women — when she had cancer. You can’t forgive that.”
Doherty’s friend Tara Furiani blasted Iswarienko for adding such “profound” pain and suffering to the actress’s life by not being a “decent human being” and showing “a little humanity to his dying wife.”
As TMZ reported, in a rare move, a family law judge granted the star’s last wish and signed off on the divorce on Monday, two days after her death.
A noted family law expert told Page Six how, typically, if someone dies mid-divorce in California and most other states, the family law court loses jurisdiction and the case is handled in probate court. Probate judges don’t finalise divorces.
In court documents that surfaced last month, Doherty claimed her ex was waiting for her to die to avoid giving her alimony payments. She also accused Iswarienko, a celebrity portrait photographer, of withholding information about his finances, because he appeared to earn more than the cancer-stricken star.
“During marriage, particularly in the later years of our relationship, Kurt earned several million dollars per year,” Doherty said in the documents. Comparatively, in the last three years of her marriage Doherty said her income was US$259,708.
Iwarienko’s lawyer, Katherine Heersema, denied to TMZ her client was “simply wait[ing] for Shannen to die,” adding: “He wants the best for Shannen and he wants both of them to be able to put this case behind them and move forward.”
The two wed in October 2011 after two years of dating. They separated in April 2023 as Doherty claimed Iswarienko had cheated on her with his agent Collier Grimm.
Speaking on the launch episode of her podcast, “Let’s Be Clear with Shannen Doherty,” in December, the actress shared how she went into surgery to remove a brain tumour after learning that her 11-year marriage was “essentially over”.
“I went into that surgery early in the morning and I went in after I found out that my marriage was essentially over, that my husband had been carrying on an affair for two years … ” she said. “ I felt so betrayed.”
“Shannon was heartbroken,” her friend told Page Six. “She never wanted this divorce.”
Sources close to Iswarienko, however, have disputed Doherty’s narrative, alleging in December that he and Doherty had been living separate lives for two years before her January 2023 surgery, and that he had been upfront about starting a new relationship with Grimm while they were living in different states — Iswarienko in Texas and Doherty in California.
Doherty was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 and announced that it was in remission in 2017.
She revealed the cancer had come back, at Stage Four, in 2020.
Last June, she said the disease had spread to her brain and, soon after, metastasised into her bones.
The actress asked Iswariekno for upwards of US$15,000 (A$22,400) a month in spousal support, as well as payment for lawyer fees, in a filing submitted on June 14. In it, she claimed her money would soon dry up as Charmed would no longer stream on any major platforms after June 30.
The star also faced losing her SAG medical insurance because she could not work.
“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 … 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 claimed in her filing.
The actress’s oncologist and close friend Dr Lawrence D. Piro told People magazine: “In the last few hours, she was in a place where she was very comfortable and sleeping and transitioning, and she was surrounded by some of her very close friends … ” he revealed.
“The hardest thing about this was that she wasn’t ready to leave because she loved life.”
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