The Alyssa Milano and Shannen Doherty Feud Began Before 'Charmed' Ever Aired

The Gist:

• Shannen Doherty left Charmed after three seasons due to a feud with Alyssa Milano.
• The 90210 star says she was forced out by her co-star.
• Alyssa seems to be trying to move on from the whole fiasco.

Fans have long wondered who is telling the truth in the she said/she said feud between Shannen Doherty and Alyssa Milano.

While we may never know for sure, the Beverly Hills, 90210 alum spoke out about the doomed relationship on her podcast. Here's what she had to say, as well as where Alyssa stands.

As fans now know, Shannen was ultimately fired from Charmed. It turns out that Alyssa gave the powers that be an ultimatum: One of them had to go, and it ended up being Shannen.

But backing up, according to Shannen, tensions in the group were running high before Charmed even aired. She explained the dynamic on an episode of her Let's Be Clear podcast while speaking with former co-star Holly Marie Combs.

"I was cast first, the show was originally sold to the WB based on me,” the star explained to Holly. “But once those magazine covers started happening, and one person is being asked and the other one isn’t, I felt like the competitiveness was kicking in. And I’m not saying with you, I’m saying with Alyssa and myself. There was a lack of female support."

Things only got worse from there. While Shannen claims she doesn't recall ever being mean to Alyssa, three seasons in, the Who's the Boss? star essentially forced her co-star out by threatening to sue for a hostile work environment.

But to save her reputation, at the time, Shannen's team convinced her to lie and say she left on her own accord, since she'd also been fired from 90210.

"My representatives, I remember them looking at me at the time and said, ‘No, no, no, your career won’t survive another firing, so we’re just going to say that you chose to leave.' I remember I started laughing, going, ‘Who is going to believe that I’m crazy enough to leave a hit show?'” she recalled on the podcast.

It's only now that she is coming clean about how things really went down, although rumors persisted for years that tensions between Shannen and Alyssa were the reason the former was replaced by Rose McGowan.

For her part, Alyssa has owned up to her role in things with Shannen going south.

"You know, I could take responsibility for a lot of our tension that we had,” she told Entertainment Tonight in 2021. “I think a lot of our struggle came from feeling that I was in competition rather than it being that sisterhood that the show was so much about. And I have some guilt about my part in that.”

But today, it seems Alyssa is focused on moving on, and moving up. In an interestly-timed Twitter post shared just a day after Shannen's podcast episode aired, the actress said in part about turning 51 that she has learned to focus on "love," "resilience," "gratitude," and "empathy and compassion."