Sharing her experiencing of fighting the fatal disease, Shannen asserted that her body wasn’t the only thing that underwent a change because of cancer, her marriage also went through a transformation. She said that she faced many changes in her life while fighting the disease. She knew her body would change, but she wasn’t expecting her marriage to be transformed.
How breast cancer changed their marriage?
Shannen Doherty and Kurt Iswarienko married in 2011. After four years, in 2015, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. The actress was operated for mastectomy in 2016, followed by cycles of chemotherapy and radiation and finally remission in 2018 with breast reconstruction surgery.
Picture: Shannen Doherthy | Instagram
It was a lengthy and painful process. Shannen documented some of the pictures of her cancer battle on social media to bring awareness to the disease. She never spoke how it affected her marriage until now. She wants to bring awareness to the fact that cancer doesn’t just affect the person diagnosed but also alter the people in one’s life.
Shannen said that cancer solidified them. They have a much deeper appreciation for each other now. She continued that it was not that their marriage was not good before. But they were going through some growing pains. They would lock horns on things, and instead of resolving it, they would not speak for a couple of days. Now they don’t let a night go by mad at each other.
She told that last time they had a big argument was before the diagnosis of her cancer.
She says that Kurt and she look at each other with profound respect now. They have a much larger capacity for forgiveness. She says Kurt helped her to be a better person. He would always say that he never saw someone handling something so difficult with lots of grace and that she was so strong.