Everything To Know About Shannen Doherty's Mom Rosa

Shannen Doherty spoke candidly about many parts of her life in the years immediately preceding her death, including her career and the cancer that ultimately took her life on July 13, 2024. Family was also a key discussion point on Doherty's hit podcast, "Let's Be Clear with Shannen Doherty," especially the actor's bond with her beloved mother, Rosa Doherty. Shannen leaned on her mother in those final months of life, but the family members had always been incredibly close (Shannen was also close to her father, John, who died in 2010). On one particularly moving episode, an emotional Shannen discussed selling off many of the antiques she spent years accumulating, in part so her mother would not be tasked with clearing out storage units when she died.

There was an added benefit to downsizing, too. "I get to take my mom on vacations because I have all this extra sort of 'play money' laying around, and I'm not digging into the money that's in my estate, that's going to make sure everybody in my life is taken care of once I'm dead," Shannen shared on the April 2024 episode, where she also detailed a recent mother-daughter trip to Italy. While the grandmother of seven — all from her son, as Shannen had no kids — took over hosting duties for "Let's Be Clear" after her daughter died, as Shannen desired, Rosa remains an unfamiliar figure to many non-diehard fans. Here is what you need to know about Shannen's mom.

Rosa Elizabeth Wright was born in Memphis, Tennessee, in December 1947, to Lloyd Buford Wright and Hilda Mae Parker. She became Rosa Doherty at age 20 when she married John Thomas Doherty, then a bank worker. The couple had two children — "Beverly Hills, 90210" actor Shannen Doherty and her brother Sean, four years her senior. Though Shannen was divorced three times, her parents remained married until Tom (as John was known) died in 2010. The pair raised their kids in a conservative home, with values and norms influenced by Rosa's Southern Baptist religion. The family relocated to Los Angeles when Shannen was in primary school — Tom started a transportation business there, which failed a few years later — but they remained rooted in religion even on the West Coast.

Shannen attended Baptist school in California for years, but told People she eventually grew disillusioned with the repressive rules — particularly the ban on dancing — and left religious schooling after a fight with her principal. Rosa, however, has remained steadfast in her religious beliefs. She said on "Let's Be Clear" that it is her faith in God that is helping her cope with her grief. While Rosa got married when she was barely out of her teens and follows an ultra-conservative religion, she has also bucked tradition at times. For example, she owned a beauty parlor when the family lived in Memphis, which is impressive considering less than half of adult women worked outside of the home at that time (let alone owned a business).

Shannen Doherty was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015, but she announced it was in remission two years later after having a mastectomy and undergoing both chemotherapy and radiation. So, it was a tragic shocker when Doherty announced the return of her cancer and its escalation to metastatic stage 4 in 2020. The star vacillated between hopeful and resigned in her final years, exploring a variety of treatment options and documenting it all for fans on social media and her podcast. Shannen often expressed concern for her loved ones' emotional and financial security — especially her mother, Rosa Doherty — and that framed her end-of-life choices. "I don't think that there's a decision that I make that I don't take [my mom] into consideration. I love her, and I am so incredibly grateful to her for being an amazing mother," Doherty told People.

The cancer eventually spread to Shannen's brain, which had an odd significance for the star and her mother. This is because Rosa's own brain was the source of a massive health scare for the family when Shannen was a child. After suffering an aneurysm, Rosa was given only a 10% chance of survival — and it was her commitment to fighting for her life that Shannen clearly remembered when faced with her own health crisis decades later. "I come from a woman who was determined. She impressed that upon me as a very young child like, 'You don't give up. You just have to work hard at it,'" Shannen said.