Shannen Doherty Wanted to Mix Her Ashes With Two Loved Ones

Before she died of breast cancer on Saturday (July 13), actor Shannen Doherty laid out very specific plans for the arrangements after her death.

In a January episode of her Let’s Be Clear podcast, Doherty shared her wishes for after her death, explaining that she want to be cremated instead of buried.

“This is such a morbid conversation, but so fun,” she said in conversation with Chris Cortazzo, a close friend of hers who was also named executor of her will.

“I want to be mixed with my dog and I want to be mixed with my dad,” Doherty related.

She brought a little bit of graveyard humor to the conversation, joking that the final collection of ashes will be “a healthy mixture of my father, me and [my dog] Bowie.”

According to People, the actor’s father John Doherty died in 2010 after suffering a stroke nearly a year prior. She said in her podcast episode that she’d spent several years wearing a necklace containing some of his ashes.

Bowie — a German Shepherd who has been Doherty’s sidekick for years — is still living, so Doherty will have to wait for her beloved dog’s ashes to complete the final mixture.

A passionate animal lover and advocate for shelter pets, Doherty posted a birthday message for Bowie on social media back in March, writing that she loved her dog “to an obsessive point.” Bowie was by Doherty’s side when she died, according to a statement from the actor’s publicist.

In January, Doherty still didn’t quite know what she wanted done with the remainder of her ashes — she thought about using part of them to grow a tree, or enclosing them in necklaces for loved ones to wear around their necks.

However, her plans were more firmly in place when it came to what she wanted for her funeral. Doherty said she wanted the event to be a “love fest” with close loved ones, and she wanted to keep the guest list short, admitting the list of people she’d prefer not be there was “way too long.”

“I don’t want them there because their reasons for showing up aren’t necessarily the best reasons. Like, they don’t really like me, you know?” she explained. “And good for them. But they don’t actually really like me enough to show up to my funeral. But they will, because it’s the politically correct thing to do and they don’t want to look bad, so I kind of want to take that pressure off them.”

Who Is Shannen Doherty and How Did She Die?

• Doherty was an actor best known for her work on Little House on the Prairie, Charmed and 90210.
• As a teenager in the ’80s, she appeared in films like Heathers, Night Shift and Girls Just Want to Have Fun.
• Doherty was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015.
• Her cancer went into remission, but in 2017, she revealed that it had returned and was now Stage IV. Subsequently, her cancer spread to her brain.
• Doherty died on July 13. She was 53 years old.

Carena Liptak is an Associate Editor and staff writer at Taste of Country. She specializes in breaking country music news, interviews and lists. In particular, she’s got a soft spot for sad songs — check out her roundup of the 50 Saddest Country Songs of All Time!