Brian Krause Remembers Shannen Doherty Twenty Years After the “Charmed” Finale: ‘She was Such a Force’ (Exclusive)

Alexandra SchonfeldSun, April 12, 2026 at 12:00 PM UTC

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Shannen Doherty and Brian Krause in 'Charmed.'Credit: The WB -

Brian Krause is looking back at his time starring as Leo on Charmed alongside Alyssa Milano, Holly Marie Combs and the late Shannen Doherty.

Krause remembers thinking that if Doherty was attached to the show there was a good chance it would be "good" following her previous '90s television success.

Krause, who hosts a rewatch podcast with Combs and Drew Fuller, says it's "been difficult" to watch Doherty's onscreen departure following season three.

Nearly 30 years after Charmed first premiered, Brian Krause is looking back on the early days of the series he starred in alongside Alyssa Milano, Holly Marie Combs and the late Shannen Doherty.

Krause says when he first heard that Doherty was attached to the show, he knew the show had huge potential. “Anything Shannen was going to do was probably going to be good,” he tells PEOPLE, as Doherty had been starring in one of Aaron Spelling's other shows, Beverly Hills, 90210.

“I had auditioned for a couple different roles and I just didn't book them and then the role for Leo came up, and it was just a handyman, potential boyfriend,” he says of the character he'd play for eight seasons. “And I'll never forget, I went in, and Aaron Spelling had this big office and really intimidating, 40 people on a couch. I had met him 10 times in the past for different shows, 90210, Melrose, and I'd never gotten hired by him. So I had this plan where I was going to go in and say, ‘Good to see you again.' Maybe he'd jog his memory.”

Brian Krause in season 6 of 'Charmed.'Credit: The WB

After a day of auditions it was finally time to go in to meet Spelling and to Krause's disappointment, he didn't seem to remember him at all and responded: “nice to meet you.”

“I was just angry, and over the industry, and the struggle,” he recalls, sharing that he'd been working construction at the time to make ends meet with a baby at home and needed the job. “...And I just read it really angry, something I hadn't done all day... And I just walked out all pissy, which wasn't Leo.”

By the time he made it back to his car, he had the job.

And now almost twenty years after the show's finale in May 2006, Krause, Combs — who played a couple onscreen — and their TV son Drew Fuller, host the House of Halliwell rewatch podcast, allowing the three of them to look back on the show's legacy, which includes that of Doherty who died in 2024.

“It's been difficult to watch [the replacement of Doherty], especially with her passing and how close Holly and her were,” Krause says of Doherty, who was replaced by Rose McGowan at the end of the third season in 2001.

Shannen Doherty, Brian Krause, Alyssa Milano and Holly Marie Combs in season 3 of 'Charmed.'Credit: The WB

“I'm not going to speak for Holly, but I know it's difficult that on the show she mourns her sister and in life she is,” Krause adds. “So we've just tried to be there for her and the fans have.”

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Doherty, whose second posthumous birthday is April 12, died from breast cancer in 2024 at age 53.

“Shannen was beloved, for sure, and she's missed. She was such a force,” Krause says.

Though the show has been off the air for almost two decades, Krause and his former costars travel the world for fan conventions. Krause admits that while he found the concept a “little cheesy” he's since changed his tune.

Brian Krause on season 1 of 'Charmed.' Brian Krause at 90s Con in 2024.Credit: The WB; Gerardo Mora/Getty

“It's one thing my mom had said to me before she passed was, ‘Your fans are everything. If someone writes you a letter, you write back. Without them, there's nothing.' So meeting people and hearing their stories and their tears, I love it, I love connecting.”he says.

Krause says he admired how much Doherty would give to fans during conventions.

“That was the one thing I saw with Shannen the last few years and how engaged she was with the fans and how giving,” he says. “It was really impressive. And it's kind of, you follow suit, and Holly does the same, and there's no ego there. We literally try and connect with every person that comes to the table.”

On a recent episode of House of Halliwell, Combs shared that Doherty wanted the group to do a Charmed convention one day.

Holly Marie Combs, Brian Krause, Shannen Doherty and Alyssa Milano in 'Charmed.'Credit: Viacom / courtesy Everett Collection

"I think back [on] all the things we wanted to do, and all the things we had planned,” Combs said on the March 24 episode. “I kind of feel bad that I'm not doing all of them, because by now she would have had us doing three, four different things, including our own Charmed convention in the U.S.A. [or] our own home brand."

"She just had copious amounts of inspiration around her all the time," Combs continued. "... She had so many ideas brewing all the time."

on People

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