Shannen Doherty Denies Having 'Open Marriage' With Ex Kurt Iswarienko
Shannen Doherty is shutting down claims that estranged husband Kurt Iswarienko told her he was having an affair before her brain tumor was discovered.
Doherty, 52, took to Instagram on Tuesday, December 12, to react to a TMZ article published that day. “Let’s Be Clear, the truth matters. I just received a disturbing phone call that @tmz_tv was going to run a story about me,” she began in the caption.
According to the TMZ report, sources close to Iswarienko, 49, claimed that the exes had been living separately for two years prior to Doherty’s brain tumor removal in January.
The insiders further alleged that Iswarienko told Doherty of his new relationship in early January, a few days before Doherty had the MRI that led to her brain tumor discovery.
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Shannen Doherty frequently praised estranged husband Kurt Iswarienko for his tireless support prior to their 2023 split. “My happy place got a lot happier with the arrival of my best friend. I couldn’t love this man more,” the Beverly Hills, 90210 alum wrote via Instagram in June 2019, sharing a selfie with Iswarienko. “His love […]
Doherty called the timeline — and the implication that she and Iswarienko had “an open marriage” — an “absolute lie” in her Instagram post.
She continued: “I will address the marriage and affair further on @letsbeclearpod. In the meantime … @tmz_tv please do more due diligence and to the ‘friends/girlfriend’ who tried to put this story out, I realize you’re scared of the truth but trying to circumvent it with lies will get you nowhere. #thetruthmatters.”
Doherty’s former Charmed costar Holly Marie Combs showed her support in the comments section.
“@tmz_tv you should tell your source Shannen has never deleted a text in her life. Or theirs. #receipts,” Combs, 50, wrote.
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Doherty first opened up about Iswarienko’s alleged infidelity during the inaugural episode of her “Let’s Be Clear” podcast earlier this month.
“I went into that surgery early in the morning and I went in after I found out that my marriage was essentially over, that my husband had been carrying on an affair for two years,” the actress claimed.
According to Doherty, Iswarienko wanted to be by her side during the surgery, but she told him to leave.
“At the end of the day, I just felt so incredibly unloved by someone I was with for 14 years, by someone I loved with all my heart,” she explained. “Just to have to go through all of that while trying to figure out if you’re going to get a f—king divorce and trying to get to the truth of that.”
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Doherty filed for divorce from Iswarienko in April after 11 years of marriage. At the time, her rep, Leslie Sloane, said that “divorce is the last thing Shannen wanted, [but] unfortunately, she felt she was left with no other option.”
During her first podcast episode, Doherty admitted that she feels “horrified that I can’t keep a relationship together.” (She was previously married to Ashley Hamilton from 1993 to 1994 and Rick Salomon from 2002 to 2003.) However, she’s not beating herself up this time around.
“I think this one is on him,” she said. “I’ve failed three times at marriage, but I still believe in love. … I also take some responsibility for the demise of our marriage — actually that’s not true. Let me rephrase that, I do not take responsibility for the demise of our marriage, I take responsibility for some of the issues in our marriage. I take responsibility not only because of how I was but because of how cancer impacted my marriage and how it impacted him the second time around.”
Doherty was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. After two years of chemotherapy, the Beverly Hills, 90210 alum confirmed she was in remission. When her cancer returned in 2020, Doherty revealed her stage IV diagnosis. After the cancer previously metastasized to her brain, she shared last month that it has has spread to her bones as well.
