Shannen Doherty Revealed Wishes for Her Funeral Before Her Death

Shannen Doherty had specific instructions for her funeral and burial arrangements ahead of her death.

The actress, who died on Saturday, July 13, at age 53, spoke about dying on an episode of her podcast, Let’s Be Clear, in January.

“I want [my remains] to be mixed with my dog, and I want it to be mixed with my dad. I do not want to be buried and not cremated,” she said at the time, adding that her loved ones should distribute her ashes in “a healthy mixture” of ways.

The Beverly Hills, 90210 alum then spoke about her loved ones potentially scattering her and her father’s ashes in Malibu, California, where the pair spent “precious time,” or another location they both loved.

She said she was also interested in the idea of using her remains to “grow them into a tree.”

As for her funeral, Doherty envisioned the guest list being on the “shorter” side.

“There’s a lot of people that I think would show up that I don’t want there,” she said. “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 and, you know, they have their reasons and good for them, but they don’t actually really like me enough to show up to my funeral.”

“[They’ll show up] because it’s the politically correct thing to do, and they don’t want to look bad, so I kinda want to take the pressure off them and I want my funeral to be like a love fest. I don’t want people to be crying or people to privately be like, ‘Thank God that bitch is dead now,’ ” Doherty added.

On another episode of Let’s Be Clear in April, the Charmed alum spoke about how she was letting go of physical possessions that weren’t bringing her joy, in part to make the transition after her death easier for loved ones.

“It feels like you’re giving up on something that was very special and important to you,” she explained of cleaning out a storage unit. “But you know that it’s the right thing to do and that it’s going to give you a sense of peace and a sense of calm. Because you’re helping the people that you leave behind just have a cleaner, easier transition.”

In the episode, Doherty, who was a collector of antique furniture, also reflected on her thought process on what items to get rid of.

“I’m not enjoying it and others aren’t enjoying it, and do I really need any of it? Do I need to have three dining room tables?” she asked herself. “The answer is no, none of us really need all the stuff that we have, and we could all do with a little bit of downsizing and not become a hoarder, which I was doing with all my furniture.”

She then said that she was focusing on creating memories with friends and family rather than material items in her last years of life.

“I don’t need this, it doesn’t really bring me any great joy, but what does bring me great joy is taking my mom to the places that she’s always wanted to go to,” she said, adding, “I get to build different memories — I get to build memories with the people I love. I’m not digging into the money that’s in my estate that is going to make sure everybody in my life is taken care of.”

Doherty went on to reflect on a trip she took with her mom to Italy to make those memories a few years ago.

“[My mom] had tears pouring down her face because she never really thought that she would see that, and she certainly didn’t think that she was going to be able to see that with me,” Doherty said. “Those are the things that matter the most. Not your possessions, not what you have.”

The Heathers star admitted that letting go of possessions gave her “freedom.”

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Doherty was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. In a November 2023 PEOPLE cover story, she revealed that the cancer had spread to her bones.

In the last episode of Let’s Be Clear — released on Monday, July 8, before her death — Doherty told her friend and former costar Holly Marie Combs that the main reason she continued to work was to make sure her mom was financially taken care of when she died.

Doherty was planning to join Combs on her friend’s Charmed rewatch podcast before her death.