Motherhood is never easy, but the COVID-19 pandemic brought a whole new set of challenges. Moms had to keep their kids safe but also let me be kids. It wasn’t easy. Sarah Michelle Gellar to grateful to longtime pal Shannen Doherty for helping her out during this trying time period.
Sarah appeared on Shannen’s podcast, Let's Be Clear With Shannen Doherty, and opened up about it. Sarah gushed about her friend and couldn’t be more thankful. Later in the episode, the ladies also talked about playing strong female characters in the '90s.
Sarah is a mother of two kiddos whom she shares with husband Freddie Prinze Jr. Charlotte is now 14 and Rocky is 11. "You gave my children such a life in COVID and I was really struggling with how to give them that freedom and that room to be kids and have adventures," Sarah told Shannen.
During the pandemic, Sarah and Shannen were part of a small group of friends who created a COVID “pod.” This was super helpful to stressed-out parents who needed their kids to have some safe socialization. “You opened your home to us in COVID in a way that I will for the rest of my life be grateful for," Sarah gushed.
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This revelation is especially heartwarming since Shannen has not been able to have children of her own. Shannen struggled with infertility and underwent IVF. She was then diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 and got a divorce from her husband in 2023. She is considering adoption but her stage 4 breast cancer has spread to her brain.
"I have looked at adopting, and all sorts of different options. I think I struggle a lot with my cancer diagnosis, and how fair it is [to a child]," Shannen told Entertainment Tonight. "I'm in treatment, and I'm gonna see if that treatment works, see what's coming down the pipeline, what clinical trials [are available] and if I feel like I can give a long enough time to a child, then I'll definitely do it."
Sarah is thankful Shannen acted as a bonus mom to her kids. "You gave them adventures and just, freedom. And I can never repay that because that was such a difficult time, and so seeing my kids that happy and giving me a break," Sarah gushed. "People don't know this, but Shannen sat there sometimes while they were on Zoom school and helped them and we would have blackouts and she would plan adventures."
While the pandemic was horrible and chaotic, it also forced the world to slow down, which was a silver lining of sorts. "It was such a special time," Sarah mused. "And while that time period was so stressful and I never want to repeat that — I never want homeschooling again — there are times where I miss that slow life and just being able to be like that and having your kids spend that time with you too, right?"
Shannen is equally thankful for Sarah’s friendship. Sarah has been a constant support in the craziness of Hollywood. "When we met, the time period that we met, wasn't really that much of a female-friendly time period — at all," Shannen reminisced. "And yet you really, I kind of want to say, took me under your wing, right?”
“We did that big WB promo shoot,” Shannen recalled. “And you kind of just scooped me under your wing like a baby bird, and you're like, 'We got this. We got this.' And that continued throughout my career, and more importantly, throughout our lives." It appears as if these women have each other’s backs.
