Charmed Star Recalls Cancer Scare That Bonded the Cast in Season 1: ‘No One Has Any Idea How Close We Were’
In the latest episode of Charmed rewatch podcast The House of Halliwell, Holly Marie Combs recalls the support she received from co-stars Shannen Doherty and Alyssa Milano during an incredibly difficult time.
While discussing “The Power of Two,” an episode from Season 1 that originally aired in May 1999, Combs shares the extremely personal story behind her character’s noticeable absence for most of the hour.
“They had found a rather large tumor in my uterus during this season, and it kept growing at a rate that was not healthy,” the actress, who played middle witch sister Piper, says. “They were afraid that it was cancer, so we needed to have it removed.” As Combs later recalls, “Alyssa would stare at me through the car window and say, ‘It’s not cancer. It’s not cancer.'” Fortunately, she was right.
Production shut down for two weeks while Combs recovered from surgery, during which time her TV sisters were never more than an orb away.
“We got very close, all of us, during this time,” she says. “Shannen would leave my hospital room, and Alyssa and her mom would come in. When I went home, Alyssa’s mom had made me chicken soup and food for the week because it was a really major surgery. The girls really pulled together during this time for me.”
According to Combs, her tumor was “the size of a baseball” after being removed. One detail she can’t remember, however, is why Milano chose to name the tumor Jonathan.
Combs eventually returned to film Piper’s scenes for the episode, most of which involved her sitting because “walking was not fun at that point.”
If you’re wondering why you’ve never heard this story before, Combs explains, “I don’t advertise it a lot. I’m very protective of the show and my part in it, but I’m also very protective of the moments that we had like this. No one has any idea how much both Shannen and Alyssa did for me during this time. That’s the s–t that really bugs me. No one has any idea how much we went through behind the scenes, and how much we did together, and how close we were. Alyssa was in my hospital bed with me. I was like, ‘You’re on my catheter, kid, you’ve got to get off.'”
New episodes of The House of Halliwell — hosted by Combs, Brian Krause (aka Leo) and Drew Fuller (Chris) — drop every Wednesday on Apple Music and Spotify.
Speaking of cancer, I wonder how Shannen Doherty is doing with her cancer battle.
last i heard she was in remission. :)
She was initially diagnosed in 2015, then her cancer went into remission. About a year ago she has announced that it came back in stage 4, which means it has spread to the distant parts of her body. It isn’t curable, but highly manageable – and from the look of it, she is managing just fine. Life expectancy for people living with stage 4 continues to evolve based on new drugs and therapies. All the best to her and to everyone who is fighting this. F**k cancer.
This is actually a nice story for Holly to share. Despite the the topic of the matter and how serious it was and could have been. I really like how Holly describes how close they were. Because she’s right, everyone focuses on the drama behind the scenes, but no one knows how much they actually bonded like sisters in the beginning.
I really enjoyed the original three sisters was really upset when Shannon had to leave how is she doing by the way these rewinds on syfy are great thanks for Shannon
Yea but Shannen actually had an aggressive cancer so this story pales quite a bit….I hope everyone has and had rallied around her as well.
I’m guessing comments like this are why Holly was hesitant to tell her story…
What strange attitude to have, minimizing her experience & the fear she must have had while waiting to find out, just because it didn’t turn out to be cancer. That’s ridiculous. Would you want people to say something like that to you if you’d had to go through a waiting period of finding out whether or not you had cancer, only to learn that you didn’t? Find some empathy because you’re seriously lacking in it.
It’s not for you to say whose illness pales to comparison. It was clearly something that worried them all at the time and Tumors are no fun to deal with.
The story she was saying was how close they bonded through this experience.
Everyone did rally around Shannon; illness should not be compared.
Thank you Leon., Mary, and “n” Words well spoken.
What an odd comment. Holly’s health scare occurred during the filming of Charmed when these women were constantly around each other, it’s natural to rely on and support those you see frequently. Shannen’s cancer battle was 15 years later when she likely wasn’t seeing these women. I assume she had a different support network by then.
I really really loved the show with the original three sisters. Me and my 3 sisters all watched every episode back when we were in school, it was the highlight every week and as i grew older we watched the entire series again as an adult.. There is just something about the bond of these 3 that really showed on screen… the show was never the same after Prue left.. I think they under valued how much their relationship mattered and how much the show depended on it. If anything I hope that they are still close now.
Very nice story that Piper or Holly shared… I really loved every outifit, every story with the original power of three Prue Piper And Phoebe and their grams and Leo.
Thank you to everyone that was involved in this show.
I really did like how Piper and Phoebe evolved after Prue’s death. It is hard for me to say I liked the first three seasons the best when Post Prue Death Piper is my FAVORITE!!
Piper was my favorite too! I named my cat after her. Piper was the backbone of the 3Ps. She was tough as nails. I LOVED that show..I am 63 and my Mom loved it too..she is 80.
When I think of this show and those women, I think of a group of people who are very different, and whose differences over time tend to clash with each other. This story reminds me that despite the differences that people have when it comes to personalities or politics, there can still be shared humanity. We need more of that these days, and less warring factions that divide people. People aren’t perfect. People say things and do things that we might not like. But we have to be willing to see the good as well and spend more time trying to understand where the “other side” is coming from.
“Jonathan” was the name of Milano’s TV little brother on “Who’s the Boss”! 😂