Shannen Doherty shares unusual funeral request as she gives update on stage four cancer

Shannen Doherty has described a rather unusual funeral request.

The 52-year-old actor - best known for her role in Beverly Hills, 90210 - has stage four breast cancer which has now spread to her bones.

She reflected on dying and mortality in a 'morbid and fun' appearance on her podcast, Let's Be Clear with Shannen Doherty.

Doherty spoke with her friend Chris Cortazzo, who is also the executor of her will.

When it comes to her funeral, the star described how there may be 'a lot of people that I think would show up that I don't want there'.

Describing her reasons why she wouldn't want them there, Doherty explained: "I don't want them there because their reasons for showing up aren't necessarily the best reasons."

The actor even mentioned some particular people who 'don't actually really like me enough to show up to my funeral'.

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But Doherty added that they may show up any way, because 'it's the politically correct thing to do and they don't want to look bad'.

She continued: "I kind of want to take the pressure off them and I want my funeral to be like a love fest."

Doherty also described how she wanted her funeral to be as lighthearted as it could be, and strike a good balance.

She explained: "I don't want people to be crying or people to privately be like, 'Thank God that b*tch is dead now.'"

So far that just seems like a fairly sensible way to approach one's funeral, but things got a little more unusual when she began talking about what she wants to happen to her remains after she is gone.

Doherty said that she wants to be cremated, and then divide up her ashes for several different purposes.

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She said that she wants 'to be mixed with my dog, and I want to be mixed with my dad'.

For another part of her ashes, she gave Cortazzo permission to turn some of them into a piece of jewelry.

As for the rest of her ashes, Doherty said that she wasn't exactly sure where she wanted them to be scattered, saying that she hadn't 'figured that out yet'.

Doherty was first diagnosed with breast cancer back in 2015, and announced that she had gone into remission two years later.

But in 2019 the cancer returned, and sadly in 2020 she told her fans that it had progressed to stage four.

She confirmed that the cancer had spread to her brain in June 2023, and to her bones in November the same year.