Charmed took the world by storm when it first aired in 1998. The series’ youthful witch protagonists have gone down as some of the most beloved spell-slingers of all time, and the show stands as a pillar for the third wave of feminism. The Charmed Ones may have been the most powerful good witches around, but many actresses behind the successful series are loudly declaring Alyssa Milano the odd woman out.
Shannen Doherty and Rose McGowan have been at odds with Milano for years, and now, Holly Marie Combs agrees with her on-screen sisters; Alyssa Milano wasn’t as good a witch as she appeared.
Why was Shannen Doherty fired from Charmed?
A 90’s cult classic, Charmed followed The Chosen Ones, three magically inclined good witches. The sisters, starting with Prue (Shannen Doherty), Piper (Holly Marie Combs), Phoebe (Alyssa Milano), and after season 3 Paige (Rose McGowan) dazzled audiences with their overtly feminine nature, fresh spin on the occult, and Buffy-esque action sequences.
For the first few seasons, the on-screen siblings seemed to truly love one another. Combs and Milano both spoke fondly of their time during season one, and Milano gushed about her coworkers, saying that they had “bonded immediately.”
By season three, however, the cast was rarely seen together, and the glowing statements Milano had previously given about her costars were a thing of the past. Though the series was doing well with audiences, there was trouble on the set. The cast felt as though the plotlines were stagnating, something that frustrated Doherty – who was notorious for pushing herself and others to stretch their boundaries. Combs has said that Doherty was a dedicated actor, and expected her costars to take the business as seriously as she did.
It’s been mentioned by several of Milano’s costars over the years that the actress was ungrateful about her work. Rose McGowan even attacked her on Twitter/X, saying,
“You threw a fit in front of the crew, yelling, ‘They don’t pay me enough to do this sh*t!’ Appalling behavior on the daily. I cried every time we got renewed because you made that set toxic AF.”
The sentiment was mirrored by Doherty in 2001. She told ET that there was too much drama on set and that, “I’m 30 years old, I don’t have time for drama in my life.” She emphasized her frustration with people who, “B*tch about their jobs and complain about it or say they hate it.”
Paramount even sent in mediators to diffuse the on-set tension, but the attempt failed. Combs and Milano believed that the mediator made the problems worse. Their problems, according to Combs, could only be solved through a civil discussion between the cast themselves – something that apparently never happened. Instead, the mediator had Milano compile a list of “every time she felt uncomfortable on set,” offenses which Combs believes wouldn’t qualify as toxic these days.
Milano is a very tactful speaker, so even when the actress did dish on her costars, the extent of the bullying was noted as benign slights, like failing to greet one another on set. Milano said, “it’s almost like a roommate. If you spend that much time with someone and there are differences anyway, you’re not always going to get along.”
Rumors have circulated for years the Milano gave producers an ultimatum, demanding that either production sack Doherty, or she would walk. Milano has maintained that this is a fabrication, and until recently, no one had refuted the claim but Doherty herself. In 2023, Combs said during an interview on Let’s be Clear with Shannen Doherty that she overheard a producer say that Milano did give the ultimatum, and also threatened to sue production for “a hostile workplace environment.”
Either way, Doherty requested to leave the show in December of 2000, but was denied; her contract was explicit – if she walked away the company had grounds to sue her. It was complicated for Combs as well, the actress has said she never wanted to stay on with the show, but her contract prevented her from leaving in tandem with Doherty.
What happened to change the WB’s minds we’ll likely never know, but less than a year later Doherty was fired via phone call.
“How do you go from directing the season finale to being [given] a pink slip over the phone, when [you’re] in another country, at eight at night?” Combs wondered during an interview with TV Guide. Doherty’s dismissal stung, Combs said on the podcast that she wanted to leave the series when Doherty left (something that Doherty had claimed back in 2001).
Doherty, who already had a reputation for being hard to work with – she was dismissed from Beverly Hills, 90210 in 1994 – was an easy scapegoat. The media lapped up the story, but rumors about Milano’s direct involvement never stopped circulating.
Alyssa Milano’s response
For her part, she never denied the friction between the two. Alyssa Milano told Entertainment Weekly in 2001 that it was “Hard when you put two very different people together.” Likewise, she’s never shied away from Rose McGowan’s very public distaste for her. In a 2018 interview McGowan did with Nightline, the actress refers to Milano as “a lie,” and deftly says, “I don’t like her.” When pressed, McGowan continues, “Do you think I don’t know these people?”
Milano is married to a member of the CAA (another point of contention for McGowan), so though her responses are poised, there is no small amount of publicist pandering in the words. Alyssa Milano told Drew Barrymore during her Sorry not Sorry tour in 2021 that “She did what she had to do” to keep working.
Milano described a relationship with Rose McGowan in the book, though she never named the “coworker who attacked her,” she has been candid in discussing McGowan’s hurtful words.
“Rose has been publicly unkind to my family and me for some years now,” she expanded in an interview with Extra. Despite this, Milano has no cruel words for her former costar, rather, she is taking the high road. “Whether it’s directed at me or other marginalized communities, I’m always going to stand on the side of kindness.”