Shannen Doherty wanted her remains to be 'mixed' with her dog and dad, or 'to grow them into a tree'
Before her passing on July 13 after a battle with breast cancer, actress Shannen Doherty revealed her wishes for her final arrangements on her podcast, Let's Be Clear.
Though admittedly it was a "morbid" topic, Shannen said she wanted to be cremated and that her ashes are to be distributed in "a healthy mixture" of ways.
"I want [my remains] to be mixed with my dog, and I want it to be mixed with my dad. I do not want to be buried and not cremated," she said.
Shannen also said that she wanted her ashes to be scattered in "a place that my dad and I both really loved" and "meant a lot to us," which is Malibu, California where they shared "precious time" together, or somewhere else.
The Beverly Hills 90210 star also expressed interest in having her remains "grow them into a tree."
When it comes to her funeral, she also wanted the guest list to be short, noting that there are some people that she thinks would attend to avoid looking bad, but she'd rather they not come.
"There's a lot of people that I think would show up that I don't want there," she said. "I don't want them there because their reasons for showing up aren't necessarily the best reasons, like, they don't really like me and, you know, they have their reasons and good for them, but they don't actually really like me enough to show up to my funeral."
"[They'll show up] because it's the politically correct thing to do, and they don't want to look bad, so I kinda want to take the pressure off them and I want my funeral to be like a love fest. I don't want people to be crying or people to privately be like, 'Thank God that bitch is dead now,'" she added.
More recently, Shannen, who admitted she was a furniture hoarder, talked about decluttering items to get a "sense of peace" and calm.
“It feels like you're giving up on something that was very special and important to you,” she said about cleaning a storage unit. “But you know that it's the right thing to do and that it's going to give you a sense of peace and a sense of calm. Because you're helping the people that you leave behind just have a cleaner, easier transition.”
The 53-year-old actress also said she shifted her focus towards spending quality time with friends and family and placing less importance on material things.
“I don't need this, it doesn’t really bring me any great joy, but what does bring me great joy is taking my mom to the places that she's always wanted to go to,” she said, adding, “I get to build different memories — I get to build memories with the people I love. I'm not digging into the money that's in my estate that is going to make sure everybody in my life is taken care of.”
In 2015, Shannen was initially diagnosed with breast cancer and went into remission in 2017. Her cancer returned in 2019. The following year, she revealed the news of a metastatic stage 4 cancer.
Her publicist Leslie Sloane confirmed her death to PEOPLE Magazine on Sunday, July 14.
"On Saturday, July 13, she lost her battle with cancer after many years of fighting the disease," she said.
“The devoted daughter, sister, aunt and friend was surrounded by her loved ones as well as her dog, Bowie. The family asks for their privacy at this time so they can grieve in peace,” she added.
