Shannen’s battle to the end
‘90210’ actress Doherty finalized divorce within hours of dying — capping a bruising war in courts
SHANNEN Doherty died peacefully at home in Malibu last weekend, surrounded by loved ones — who immediately feared her that her estranged husband could make a play for her estate. Sources say close friends of the beloved star of TV hits including “Beverly Hills, 90210” and “Charmed” worried that Kurt Iswarienko, whom the actress claimed had cheated on her, would be eligible to take over her multimillion-dollar fortune.
The couple’s divorce was signed off only hours before Doherty died at age 53, after a nine-year battle with breast cancer that eventually spread to her brain and bones.
“We knew that it was really bad,” one friend of Doherty told Page Six of her diagnosis. “She fought so hard, and it's so unfair . . . Shannon died before the divorce could be rubberstamped in the courts. All we wanted was for Shannon to get her final wish — to die as a divorced woman.”
Court papers seen by Page Six show that Doherty signed off on the filing on Friday, July 12. However, it was not finalized at the time of the star's death on Saturday night.
Only a small group of loved ones knew that Doherty’s health had taken a turn for the worse in recent weeks and sources told Page Six how famed Hollywood attorney Laura Wasser worked tirelessly in the week before the actress’s death to ensure the divorce could be filed.
“Laura Wasser, honestly, was valiant when it became clear that it was time to get the divorce done,” said the friend.
“Shannen’s friends were furious at Kurt. He was a cheater and having an affair,” said an insider. “She believed he cheated on her with multiple women — when she had cancer. You can’t forgive that."
Indeed, her friend Tara Furiani this week blasted Doherty's ex for adding such “profound” pain and suffering to the actress’s life by not being a “decent human being” and showing “a little humanity to his dying wife."
Messy split
As TMZ reported Thursday, in a rare move, a family law judge granted the star’s last wish and signed off on the divorce on Monday, two days after her death.
A noted family law expert told Page Six how, typically, if someone dies mid-divorce in California and most other states, the family law court loses jurisdiction and the case is handled in probate court.
Probate judges don't finalize divorces.
In court documents that surfaced last month, Doherty claimed her ex was waiting for her to die to avoid giving her any money. She also accused Iswarienko, a celebrity portrait photographer, of withholding information about his finances. “During marriage, particularly in the later years of our relationship, Kurt earned several million dollars per year,” Doherty said in the documents. “He has made a name for himself in his industry. Kurt’s average annual earnings for the last three years of marriage was $672,916. My average annual earnings for the last three years of marriage was $259,708.” Iswarienko’s attorney, Katherine Heersema, denied to TMZ that her client was “simply wait[ing] for Shannen to die,” adding: “He wants the best for Shannen and he wants both of them to be able to put this case behind them and move forward.” Page Six has reached out to Iswarienko for comment. The two wed in October 2011 after two years of dating. They split in April 2023 as Doherty claimed Iswarienko had cheated on her with his agent Collier Grimm. Speaking on the launch episode of her podcast, “Let’s Be Clear with Shannen Doherty,” in December, the actress shared how she went into surgery to remove a brain tumor after learning that her 11year marriage was “essentially over.” “I went into that surgery early in the morning and I went in after I found out that my marriage was essentially over, that my husband had been carrying on an affair for two years,” she said, adding, “I felt so betrayed.” “Shannon was heartbroken,” her friend told Page Six. “She never wanted this divorce.”
Sources close to Iswarienko, however, have disputed Doherty's narrative, alleging in December that he and Doherty had been living separate lives for two years before her January 2023 surgery, and that he had been upfront about starting a new relationship with Grimm while they were living in different states — Iswarienko in Texas and Doherty in California. Page Six can reveal that Iswarienko and Grimm are still together, according to insiders. Iswarienko was married to fashion designer Taryn Band when he first sparked with Shannen at a party in 2008. “He’s dead to me,” Taryn told Star magazine in 2012. This week, sources who know Brand told Page Six, “She is happily remarried” — adding that, although she rarely thinks about the past, her thoughts about Iswarienko’s behavior have not changed. Doherty confessed that when she found out Iswarienko was seeing someone else, she became “obsessed” with finding out the truth. “If you share 14 years together and you cheated, doesn’t that person deserve the absolute truth regardless of how much that hurts them?” she said on her podcast, noting that she “also spoke to the girlfriend of two years that he cheated” with.
Doherty said that she felt “horrified” that her marriage fell apart after previously being married to Ashley Hamilton from 1993 to 1994 and Rick Salomon from 2002 to 2003.
“I do not take responsibility for the demise of our marriage, I take responsibility for some of the issues in our marriage,” Doherty concluded. “I take responsibility not only because of how I was but because of how cancer impacted my marriage and how it impacted him the second time around.”
Fight for support
Doherty was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 and announced that it was in remission in 2017.
She revealed the cancer had come back, at Stage Four, in 2020. Last June, the actress said that the disease had spread to her brain and, soon after, metastasized into her bones.
She asked Iswarienko for upwards of $15,000 a month in spousal support, as well as and payment for attorney fees, in a filing submitted on June 14.
The star also faced losing her SAG medical insurance because she could not work.
“While I have been unable to work, incurring exorbitant medical expenses not covered by insurance to undergo experimental treatments in hopes of prolonging my life, Kurt has been . . . spending thousands of dollars at medical spas, jewelry stores, Gucci, and on flights for his ‘agent,’ while simultaneously claiming that he has insufficient funds with which to support me,” Doherty claimed in her divorce filing.
In an income and expense declaration filed in June, Doherty said she owned $3 million in real estate and $1.8 million in stocks and bonds, with $251,000 in the bank plus a $134,000 pension.
‘Difficult’ end
In a settlement, she was eventually awarded a Salvador Dalí painting and her Malibu home, as well as a 1979 Ford pickup and two Range Rovers.
In addition, according to the divorce judgment, the actress was to receive half of the licensing and syndication fees for Iswarienko’s photographic and video work.
He kept several bank accounts, guitars and the couple’s private Mooney M-20 jet, in exchange for paying Doherty a $100,000 lump sum.
The actress’s oncologist and close friend Dr. Lawrence D. Piro told People that things had turned “much more difficult” over the past few weeks.
He spent Doherty’s final moments with her and some of her loved ones, including her beloved German Shepherd, Bowie, who is now being cared for by her mom, Rosa.
“In the last few hours, she was in a place where she was very comfortable and sleeping and transitioning, and she was surrounded by some of her very close friends,” he revealed.
"The hardest thing about this was that she wasn’t ready to leave because she loved life,” Piro said.
All we wanted was for Shannen to get her final wish — to die a divorced woman.
— Friend of Shannen Doherty