How Much Money Is Shannen Doherty Really Worth
Shannen Doherty is an actress who is most likely best known for her roles on "Beverly Hills, 90210" and "Charmed" who is worth at least $5 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. In recent years, she's also become known for her advocacy for breast cancer survivors; Doherty has been battling the disease since being diagnosed in 2015 (via Survivor Net).
In addition to "90210" and "Charmed," Doherty has had a long and successful acting career. Despite her claims that she is "fed up with people printing how much I make" (per Entertainment Weekly), being in the public eye for as long as Doherty has been definitely means that people are going to speculate about how much she makes anyway. While Celebrity Net Worth claims Shannen Doherty's current net worth is $5 million, other sites, such as Pinetworth, estimates her net worth is closer to $10 million.
Whatever the true number is, one thing is true: Doherty has seen a lot of professional and personal highs in addition to many lows. Here's a look at the career and life that has contributed to her overall financial success in Hollywood.
Shannen Doherty got her start as a child actor
Years before "90210" or "Charmed," Shannen Doherty got her first big role when she was cast as Jenny Wilder on "Little House on the Prairie." Doherty's character was the niece of Almanzo Wilder, Laura Ingalls Wilder's husband, and Almanzo and Laura eventually adopt Jenny (via Laura's Prairie House).
Doherty had already been acting prior to joining "Little House" for the show's last season. She had quite a few smaller roles in the early 1980s, including in "The Secret of NIMH" and a couple of television series. One of those TV shows was "Father Murphy," which enjoyed a short run from 1981 to 1983. According to the official "Little House on the Prairie" website, Michael Landon, one of the stars of "Little House On The Prairie," spotted Doherty on that show and asked her to come onboard as Jenny Wilder.
"Little House" definitely provided a springboard for a younger Doherty to leap into more roles. IMDb indicates that Doherty completed multiple projects in the years that followed her time on the show, including three made-for-TV "Little House" movies. Doherty landed her breakthrough role on "90210" seven years after "Little House" ended.
She made a name for herself on Beverly Hills, 90210 and Charmed
Shannen Doherty was one of the original cast members on "Beverly Hills, 90210" when it debuted in 1990. However, rumors that she was a bit dramatic on set quickly took off, and the years between 1991 and 1994 were filled with stories that Doherty wasn't getting along with the rest of the cast. However, Brian Austin Green later explained to Entertainment Weekly that the truth of the matter was that some people were friends with Doherty and others just weren't: "Certain people got along with her and certain people didn't, and the people that didn't won." Eventually, Doherty left the show (and castmate Tori Spelling later admitted she got Doherty fired, as noted by Us Weekly).
In 1998, Doherty joined the cast of another beloved series, "Charmed." Unfortunately, rumors of on-set feuds quickly followed the star. As reported by the Daily News, Doherty was said to have left the show after finding out her co-star Alyssa Milano had demanded she be fired ... and Doherty wanted to beat the producers to the punch.
Even though she left both shows dramatically, they still helped propel Doherty to a level of success that many people don't achieve.
In the late 1990s, Shannen Doherty bought a home in Malibu for $2.5 million
Shannen Doherty's success in Hollywood helped her make a major purchase in 1998: a 1970s-style house in Malibu, California. It's not known how much Doherty paid for the four-bedroom, three-bathroom home back in 1998, but in 2015, she sold it for $2.275 million, according to the Daily Mail.
It seems that, prior to the sale, Doherty had a hard time hanging on to the house for good. As shared by Yahoo! News, public notices revealed the home was in default in 2009, 2011, and 2012, and each time, Doherty almost lost her house to public auction.
As shared by Yahoo! News, Doherty also tried to sell a second home in Malibu in 2008 and 2009. At the time, Doherty's listing agent told the Los Angeles Times that the actress wanted to sell the home so she could move to New York, but it's unclear if any sell actually went through or if she remains in possession of the home.
What Shannen Doherty's salaries have been like over the years
Shannen Doherty's earliest salaries aren't easy to find, but Celebrity Net Worth reported that she was paid $17,800 per episode when "Beverly Hills, 90210" began and that her paycheck went up to a whopping $75,000 per episode when she was cast on "Charmed." Doherty also joined the reboot of "90210," and she reportedly received between $40,000 and $50,000 per episode.
While those salaries are certainly impressive, Doherty revealed that the income came with a lot more responsibilities. As she explained to Entertainment Weekly in 1993, most publications were low-balling her income. "I'm really fed up with people printing how much I make, especially when they get it wrong" she said. "I do not make $12,000 a week. I make a lot more money than $12,000 a week. But I'm in the highest tax bracket, and I have, you know, attorneys to pay for."
Shannen Doherty was in major debt when she was young
All of her success at a young age didn't come without a price. In the early 1990s, Entertainment Weekly claimed that publications were reporting that Shannen Doherty was up to $36,000 in debt. She explained to the publication that part of that problem was simply that she was young and had too much money. "When you're young and all you know is how much money you make a week, you don't necessarily start thinking about, you know, everything that comes out of it," she stated.
The publication also noted that Doherty hit some major walls: At least one car was repossessed, and a former landlord was claiming the star owed around $13,000 in back rent. Doherty was pretty annoyed when confronted with this news, and she insisted that she couldn't have the money problems implied or otherwise "there's absolutely no way in hell a bank would finance an $80,000 car."
She was embroiled in a lawsuit with a management firm over her health insurance
In recent years, Shannen Doherty has faced additional financial setbacks. After revealing her diagnosis of breast cancer in 2015, Doherty also shared that she was suing management firm Tanner Mainstain, alleging that the team failed to make timely payments to the Screen Actors Guild for her health insurance. This, she said, prevented her from receiving a timely diagnosis for breast cancer, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
Doherty's lawsuit claims that Tanner Mainstain ignored SAG's invoice and later decided to end their contract with her completely. This caused her to lose insurance, which Doherty claimed to have not been aware of at first. Her husband, Kurt Iswarienko, also filed his own lawsuit against the same management team.
Doherty ended up settling the lawsuit in 2016 for an undisclosed amount of money, as noted by Us Weekly.
Shannen Doherty has also accused an insurance company of not paying her rent
That's not the only lawsuit Shannen Doherty has filed over the years. In 2019, the actress filed a suit against State Farm, alleging the company failed to pay for repairs to her home, which was damaged in a wildfire. In the documents, Doherty claimed that State Farm failed to pay rental payments for a home she was temporarily living in after her own home contained "toxins" from the Woolsey Fire in November 2018, according to Fox News.
The suit went on to state that because her rental payments were not made, Doherty had to face eviction. That can be stressful enough in and of itself, but Doherty was also battling stage 4 breast cancer at the same time. She and her husband ended up moving into her mother's home and sleeping on their couch while the issue was being sorted out. Doherty's trial against State Farm was set to begin in July 2021, but was delayed because of "the unavailability of the Court," as Radar Online reported.
Shannen Doherty was a brand ambassador for Education Connection
One way many stars give a boost to their own net worth is by accepting endorsement deals with various brands and companies. In 2014, many people were surprised when they found out Shannen Doherty had taken such a deal with Education Connection, a service that helps people pursue higher education online. People who use the platform to learn about and communicate with schools that have programs they're interested in.
In the commercial, Doherty tells viewers that she was enrolled in an online liberal arts degree and she couldn't have been more pleased. Doherty went on to explain in a press release that using Education Connection to find the right school worked for her "busy lifestyle" and that she was sharing this with the world so that others could feel encouraged to go out and complete their educations also.
It's unclear how much money Doherty made from this gig.
Has her fight against breast cancer impacted her career?
In February 2020, Shannen Doherty revealed to ABC News that she had received a second diagnosis of breast cancer, and this time the disease was classified as stage 4. She also shared that, while she received the diagnosis a year ahead of her announcement, she held off on sharing the news. Doherty was previously diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 and received treatment for two years before going into remission (via Today).
Though Doherty was battling breast cancer in 2015, she managed to continue to work. Her IMDb page shows that she completed "How to Make a Deal with the Devil" in 2015 and a stint on "Heathers" in 2018. As CNN revealed in 2020, she brings that same fighter spirit to her work as she endures a second round of cancer, and she even kept filming "BH90210" while receiving treatment.
Doherty even starred in a movie in which she played a woman who has cancer. While promoting the film, she told People that she hopes her role in "List of a Lifetime" will show that patients diagnosed with stage 4 cancer are "very much alive and very active."