It’s been almost two months since the tragic passing of the beloved Shannen Doherty, best known as Prue Halliwell in the original Charmed. The actress had suffered from breast cancer for many years before entering remission. A few years later, it returned and was deemed terminal.
Like Prue Halliwell, the eldest of the Halliwell/Matthews sisters on the show, Shannen fought until the end to make a difference. In saying that, the loss of Shannen teaches us that Prue’s death on Charmed, wasn’t in vein and that she went out fighting.
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Explaining The Death Of Prue Halliwell
The death of Prue Halliwell was a shock to many Charmed fans at the time and was deemed by some as controversial. Looper wrote an article about this in January 2024 where they found Reddit posts saying that the death of the eldest Charmed One caused the show to lose depth in later seasons.
Anyway, onto the explainer of how Prue dies.
The Source of All Evil sends his assassin Shax to kill Dr Griffiths, who was being protected by Prue and her sisters Piper and Phoebe. A fight ensues and the good doc is eventually killed when he is thrown through a glass window. What isn’t explained is why he was marked for death in the first place.
Prue and Piper are heavily wounded in the fight. Leo, the Charmed Ones’ Whitelighter and Piper’s husband managed to save his wife, but not his sister-in-law. The episode, which was directed by Shannen Doherty herself, was left on a cliffhanger where we learn in the Season 4 premiere that it was Prue that died.
The Aftermath Of Prue’s Death
Without Prue, the Power of Three is broken and Piper is left shaken by her big sister’s death. This ultimately leads to the discovery of a half-sister, Paige Matthews. She was born of an affair Patty Halliwell, Prue, Piper and Phoebe’s mother, had with her Whitelighter, Sam Wilder.
Piper, now the eldest Charmed One, is not exactly warm to her new sister. However, over time she comes around and even names her eldest son, Wyatt Matthew after her.
In later life, Phoebe has a daughter with her Cupid husband Coop whom she names Prudence Johanna after Prue and Grams.
Initially, Piper and Leo were going to name Wyatt, Prudence Melinda if he had been a girl. When they do have a daughter, they name her Melinda, after the founder of the Warren line of witches, as Phoebe had already called dibs on naming her own daughter after their late sister.
In the graphic novels that make up Seasons 9 and 10, they bring Prue back by transferring her spirit into the body of a comatose witch.
Behind The Scenes Drama
At the time of Shannen’s departure from Charmed as Prue Halliwell, her PR team claimed in a statement she wanted to move on with her career. However, it was later rumoured that friction on the set with co-star Alyssa Milano was the reason for Doherty leaving.
There was allegedly an ultimatum thrown around that either Alyssa be fired or Shannen was going to walk. Whatever the story is, it doesn’t matter. From the beginning of Season 4 onwards, Prue doesn’t appear again, not even during the funeral or flashbacks.
As per People Magazine, Shannen claimed on her podcast Let’s Be Real that it was Alyssa who had her fired from Charmed. However, Alyssa refuted this by saying she had no power to do this. Milano could be right as she didn’t have a producer credit until Season 4.
However, we will never know the true story. Even all these years later, is it still a she-said-she-said situation. As per an Yahoo UK article, Rose McGowan who played Paige has said all she knew about Charmed and the situation was that Shannen was fired. She also refused to play the media games of being pitted against Shannen. Since their Charmed days, Rose and Shannen met and became close friends.
Shannen also became close friends with Drew Fuller who played Prue, Phoebe and Paige’s (future) nephew, Chris Halliwell. They, Brian Krause who played Leo and Holly Marie Combs (Piper) launched the House of Halliwell, a Charmed rewatch podcast. Shannen had recorded five episodes before her death in July.
Brian, Holly and Drew did two tribute episodes dedicated to their late friend.
What Prue’s Death And That Of Shannen Teaches Us
Prue as a character was resilient and strong-willed. As is Shannen. We mention her in the present tense because she was a person of flesh and blood. She fought with every fibre of her being to stay alive.
Her Charmed character was the same. Prue would never intentionally leave her sisters. She especially would never leave Piper who transformed into a Fury to deal with the pain of losing her. Shannen raised a lot of awareness for cancer. Her podcast, Let’s Be Clear, was her way of getting her journey with the disease out in the open. What’s more, talking about it was Shannen’s way of showing people that your life doesn’t stop even if you are dying.
