Sarah Michelle Gellar has long flooded her Instagram account with photos of her and her close friend Shannen Doherty goofing off. But on Sunday, her nods to her pal of “30 years” took a more somber tone.
On Saturday, Doherty, who was best known for her roles in “Charmed” and “Beverly Hills, 90210,” died from stage 4 cancer after living with the disease since 2015. She was 53.
Gellar paid tribute to Doherty by posting numerous snaps of the duo hanging out together through the years on her Instagram stories.
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The “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” alum also honored Doherty in a standalone post that included many of the same photos.
“How do you possibly find the right words to sum up 30 years of friendship?” Gellar began. “I keep reminding myself it only hurts this much because, there was so much love.”
Gellar went on to thank her and Doherty’s followers who were aware of their close bond.
“I love all the messages about how @theshando was important to you,” Gellar wrote before revealing the best way to “honor her.”
“More than anything, Shan loves animals, especially dogs. In her memory let’s support our favorite animal charities. Whether that’s donating money, stopping by your local shelter and just offering cuddles and walks to animals housed there or even just tagging them in the comments so other people can learn about their work,” she wrote.
Gellar ended her post by saying: “I know that would make our girl happy” and elicit “that deep throaty laugh we all loved) 💔💔💔.”
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Doherty often spoke about her adoration for her dog, Bowie, and claimed in a 2016 interview with Entertainment Tonight that she believed Bowie sensed something was wrong with her before her 2015 cancer diagnosis.
“She would obsessively sniff right here on my right side for a long time before,” Doherty said at the time. “So, it made sense when I got diagnosed.”
Doherty also revealed on the April 1 episode of her podcast “Let’s Be Clear” that she once considered turning one of her properties into a sanctuary for abandoned and abused horses, which she’d planned to run with her mother. However, she gave “up on my dream” of opening it due to her cancer diagnosis.
Doherty was also vocal about her love for Gellar.
The two explained on the Feb. 3 episode of “Let’s Be Clear” that they met during a promotional shoot for the WB network. At the time, Gellar was starring on “Buffy” and Doherty was working on “Charmed.”
“When we met — the time period that we met — it wasn’t that much of a female-friendly time period at all,” Doherty told Gellar. “And yet, you really took me under your wing. You kind of scooped me up like a little baby bird, and you were like, ‘We got this! We got this!’”
Doherty added of Gellar’s support: “And that continued throughout my career, and more importantly throughout our lives.”
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Gellar said that she was surprised by how quickly she took to Doherty, admitting that she also felt competitive with other female actors at that time in her career.
“That was out of my comfort zone, to go up to another woman and try to make friends, because I always thought women didn’t like me, or want to be friends … [but] I was such a fan, I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to talk to you,” Gellar said, referring to Doherty’s work in “Beverly Hills, 90210.”
Their friendship certainly endured. Gellar supported Doherty during her initial diagnosis in 2015, and when her cancer returned in 2019, Gellar was one of the handful of people Doherty confided in, according to a 2020 profile in Elle.
The two women were so close that Doherty considered Gellar and her children — daughter Charlotte and son Rocky, whom Gellar shares with her husband, Freddie Prinze Jr. — as family.
“They are now like my children,” Doherty told Entertainment Tonight in October 2020. “I love them madly. It’s even better than having my own children.”