‘Charmed’ star Alyssa Milano reacts to Shannen Doherty’s death

Charmed star Alyssa Milano has released a statement reacting to the death of her TV sister witch Shannen Doherty, who played telekinetic Prue Halliwell on the long-running drama series and who died of cancer at the age of 53 on Saturday.

Milano acknowledged past tension between her and Doherty in a statement provided to Entertainment Weekly, but she called her “a talented actress” who was “beloved by many.”

“It’s no secret that Shannen and I had a complicated relationship, but at its core was someone I deeply respected and was in awe of,” Milano said. “She was a talented actress, beloved by many, and the world is less without her. My condolences to all who loved her.”

Milano starred on Charmed as Phoebe, the youngest of the three Halliwell sister witches who had the power of premonition and, in later seasons, levitation and magical empathy. The trio, which also included Holly Marie Combs as time-freezing Piper, were known as the Charmed Ones, three prophesied sister witches who would serve as good’s chief warriors against demonic evils.

Milano had a difficult relationship with Doherty, who, along with Combs, said Milano had a hand in her firing from Charmed during a conversation on Doherty’s Let’s Be Clear podcast. Prue was killed off in the season 3 finale, and Doherty was later replaced by Rose McGowan as long-lost half-sister witch Paige Matthews.

Milano addressed the situation at the fan convention MegaCon Orlando earlier this year, saying how sad she was “that a show that has meant so much to so many people has been tarnished by a toxicity that is still — to this day, almost a quarter of a century later — still happening.”

However, Doherty and Combs stuck to their guns. “Holly and I, we were not mean on the podcast,” Doherty said at the same convention. “In fact, we went in and we edited out anything that we felt would cause more drama. We simply told the truth because the truth actually does matter. But we wanted to try to save you, the fans, from heartbreak as much as humanly possible.”

On her Let’s Be Clear podcast, which served as a living memoir of sorts for Doherty, the actress also addressed how she didn’t return for the Charmed series finale in 2006 even though the door was open for her.

“I regret it in one sense,” she said. ” I regret it for the fans. But I don’t regret it for me, because I was so incredibly wrecked from getting fired that, I think, even years, years, years later, had I walked on that set, it just would’ve stirred everything back up for me. And it would’ve crushed me all over again.”

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Doherty’s longtime publicist Leslie Sloane confirmed the news of her death in a statement to Entertainment Weekly on Sunday morning, saying, “On Saturday, July 13, she lost her battle with cancer after many years of fighting the disease.”

Calling Doherty a “devoted daughter, sister, aunt, and friend,” Sloane said, “She was surrounded by her loved ones as well as her dog, Bowie. The family asks for their privacy at this time so they can grieve in peace.”