Shannen Doherty said she was “affected by the attention” and was going out too much as she struggled through a difficult marriage in the run-up to her firing from Beverly Hills, 90210.
The actress, who shot to fame in the teen drama, reflected on the challenging period in her life with former co-star Jason Priestley.
The US actors played twins Brenda and Brandon Walsh who move to Beverly Hills from middle America in the hit 1990s series, until Doherty was written out of the show at the end of series four.
Speaking to Priestley on her podcast Let’s Be Clear With Shannen Doherty, the 52-year-old admitted she had behaved unprofessionally.
“Towards my last season, I was in a really horrible marriage and there were things transpiring in that marriage that made it very hard for me to consistently be on time for work,” she said.
“I know that that became a very big problem for the rest of you, as it should be, because if everybody else is on time and you’re waiting for one person, that sucks.”
Doherty said she wished she had been “sat down” by 90210 producers at the time to explain that her unprofessionalism would lead to her firing.
At times during the conversation, Priestley seemed shocked at what his former co-star said she had been experiencing off-set in her marriage, at the same time as her father was unwell.
“You did have to do some quarterbacking in that area with a cast who, a good majority of them, felt very passionately about not waiting around for me,” she said.
Priestley replied: “It was incredibly difficult and I wish that I would have known more about what was happening in your personal life at that time because I could have hopefully managed it with more compassion and more caring.”
The 54-year-old said the hardest part of finding out Doherty would be leaving was the uncertainty about the impact on the show.
Doherty said: “I really take the blame for that. I don’t blame anyone else for what transpired and my ultimate firing. I do blame myself, because I should have had my personal life more together, I should have left a relationship earlier, I shouldn’t have been going out.
“I got definitely affected by the attention and then, all of a sudden, I could go into a nightclub and it didn’t matter how old I was.
“I found it all very seductive and alluring and I fell into that trap and then you add the personal issues, and I should have been transparent.”
Beverly Hills, 90210, which ran for 10 series from 1990 to 2000, made household names of Doherty and Priestley, as well as their co-stars including Luke Perry, Jennie Garth, Tori Spelling and Brian Austin Green.
The show spawned the spin-off soap Melrose Place, about the residents of a an apartment complex in Los Angeles.
