Behind the Scenes, ‘Charmed’ Has Been Anything But: A Timeline of the Drama

Every family has its share of dysfunction, including the Halliwell sisters of The WB’s Charmed. Since midway through the supernatural drama’s eight-season run — and as recently as this month — fans have heard about issues between stars Shannen Doherty, Holly Marie Combs, Alyssa Milano, and Rose McGowan.

And once The CW ordered a new version of Charmed, two generations of bewitching actors came into conflict.

With the acknowledgment that long hours on set could try anyone’s patience — and that there’s more ink spilled about friction between female celebrities than that of their male counterparts — here’s a recap of the Charmed franchise’s behind-the-scenes drama so far.

2001: Shannen Doherty leaves Charmed amid acrimony

As Charmed’s third season ended, fans learned that Doherty wouldn’t be returning for Season 4 amid a rumored falling-out with Milano. Producers later cast McGowan to replace Doherty and play a long-lost sister of the original three.

In a 2001 interview with Details (per the New York Post), Doherty called out executive producer Aaron Spelling, saying, “The lack of appreciation he’s showing for me as a human being and as an actor is overwhelming,”

Doherty also seemed to direct criticism Milano’s way, saying, “I mean, what do we do? Say a few lines, sit in our trailers and get paid a fortune. And yet there was a person there that bitched about her job, day in, day out.”

2013: Alyssa Milano compares the Charmed set to high school

During a 2013 appearance on Watch What Happens Live, Milano said there were “definitely some rough days” with Doherty on set. “Holly and Shannen were best friends for, like, 10 years before the show started, so it was very much sort of like high school,” she added, per HuffPost. “I would hope that in our 30s it wouldn’t feel like that anymore.”

Both Combs and Doherty responded on Twitter. “Working on Charmed was nothing like high school,” Combs wrote. “I went to high school. It was a very important job to me and always will be.”

Added Doherty, “Yeah, agreed, considering it helped me support my family and pay for my dad’s medical issues, but everyone has their opinion and views.”

2013: The cast reacts to CBS’ reboot project

The thing about them doing a #charmed reboot is… it just… it feels like yesterday. It feels too close.

— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) October 25, 2013

Months later came the news that CBS had ordered pilot for a Charmed re-imagining from Party of Five co-creator Chris Keyser and partner Sydney Sidner, as Vulture reported at the time. The original cast didn’t seem to take the news well, with McGowan writing on Twitter that “they really are running out of ideas in Hollywood” and Milano tweeting that the original Charmed felt “like yesterday” and “too close.”

2017: Rose McGowan says Milano makes her want to vomit

After Milano praised Harvey Weinstein’s ex Georgina Chapman in an interview — after McGowan accused Weinstein of rape — McGowan had strong words for her former costar. “You make me want to vomit,” she told Milano via Twitter, per Entertainment Weekly. “You actually gave me a body flashback. Well done, fake one.”

2018: Holly Marie Combs speaks out about The CW’s Charmed

Here’s the thing. Until you ask us to rewrite it like Brad Kern did weekly don’t even think of capitalizing on our hard work. Charmed belongs to the 4 of us, our vast amount of writers, crews and predominantly the fans. FYI you will not fool them by owning a title/stamp. So bye.

— Holly Marie Combs Ryan (@H_Combs) January 26, 2018

CBS’ 2013 Charmed reboot went nowhere, but The CW’s 2018 version — what the latter network called a “fierce, funny, feminist” version of the original story — made it to screen.

When The CW ordered the series, Combs tweeted, “Until you ask us to rewrite it like [original Charmed showrunner] Brad Kern did weekly, don’t even think of capitalizing on our hard work. Charmed belongs to the four of us, our vast amount of writers, crews, and predominantly the fans. FYI, you will not fool them by owning a title/stamp. So bye.”

In a statement that May, Combs said, “Let me say first that I appreciate the jobs and opportunities the Charmed reboot has created. But I will never understand what is fierce, funny, or feminist in creating a show that basically says the original actresses are too old to do a job they did 12 years ago. I hope the new show is far better than the marketing so the true legacy does remain.”

2020: McGowan says Milano made the Charmed set “toxic AF”

As they debated politics on Twitter in 2020, McGowan alleged that Milano displayed the “appalling behavior” that she said Milano displayed “on the daily” on the set of Charmed.

“You threw a fit in front of the crew, yelling, ‘They don’t pay me enough to do this s–t!’,” McGowan added in a now-offline tweet, per Us Weekly. “I cried every time we got renewed because you made that set toxic AF. Now, get off my coattails, you f–king fraud.”

Milano later gave her take on McGowan’s comments to Us, saying, “Hurt people hurt people.”

2020: New and old Charmed stars clash

Sarah Jeffery, one of the stars of the CW reboot, wasn’t charmed to see a video of Combs and McGowan mocking the updated version, with Combs laughing as McGowan said the reboot “sucks.”

“I do want to say, I find it sad and quite frankly pathetic to see grown women behaving this way,” Jeffery wrote in a Twitter thread. “I truly hope they find happiness elsewhere, and not in the form of putting down other [women of color]. I would be embarrassed to behave this way.”

Combs responded via Twitter, writing, “That’s some bullshit. And a lot of it. Clearly. People speaking — excuse me, typing — derogatory accusations of a person’s character despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary because of a difference in opinions about a TV show is just plain wrong. And also personal gain, honey.”

2022: New and old Charmed writers clash

Curtis Kheel, one of the writers of the original Charmed, dinged the new version after it ended with its trio of protagonists traveling through a portal to Halliwell Manor, the original sisters’ home base.

“As an original #Charmed writer, I can tell you what happened next: Piper, Phoebe, and Paige vanquished the three impostors right after they invaded Halliwell Manor,” Kheel wrote in a now-offline tweet, per Us Weekly. “Then [Combs] blew up the portal to that other universe and quipped, ‘We wish them well.’”

The writers of the CW series responded through their official Twitter account, writing, “Unlike with the OG version of the franchise, we had a strict ‘no assholes’ hiring policy in the writer’s room. We feel mostly sorry for these people, because unlike them, we actually like each other and had the best time.”

2023: Combs says Milano got issued an ultimatum about Doherty

Recalling her Charmed departure during an episode of her podcast Let’s Be Clear, Doherty explained that it wasn’t her choice to leave. “The narrative that I ‘quit’ was assigned to me by other people,” she said, per The Hollywood Reporter. “I didn’t assign it to myself. I think I’m at that point in my life where I don’t want to keep lying about it, and I don’t want to keep lying about something that meant the absolute world to me, something that I loved doing. I loved going to that job. I loved the people that I worked with.”

Combs, meanwhile, said that she heard from Charmed producer Jonathan Levin that Milano threatened a hostile-workplace lawsuit against the production and issued a “her or me” ultimatum about Doherty. “Because she went to the therapist or the mediator or the corporate mediator, whatever the heck his title is, she had built a case for herself where she was documenting every time she felt uncomfortable on set, and for whatever reason, whereas you and I refused to speak to him,” Combs said. “So that’s where the deck was stacked.”