Shannen Doherty had ideas for funeral and cremation before her death

• “Beverly Hills, 90210” star Shannen Doherty died on Saturday at the age of 53.
• In an episode of her podcast “Let’s Be Clear With Shannen Doherty” in January, she talked about her funeral plans.
• The actress said she wants to be cremated and her remains will be mixed with those of her dog and her father.

Shannen Doherty had some ideas for her funeral before her death.

The actress from “Beverly Hills, 90210” died on Saturday. In a January episode of her podcast “Let’s Be Clear with Shannen Doherty” with guest Chris Cortazzo, she talked about what her funeral should look like.

“I want to be with my dog, and I want to be with my dad. I don’t want to be buried. I want to be cremated,” Doherty told Cortazzo, her best friend and executor.

She also mentioned that she was fascinated by the idea of ​​“growing a tree” from her remains.

When Cortazzo mentioned that he would “wear” some of Dohery’s remains as a necklace around his neck, Doherty said she had done the same with some of her father’s remains.

“I did that with my dad. I had my dad around my neck for a while. I don’t actually know where the necklace went, but I had nightmares,” Doherty said.

For her final resting place, Doherty said she needed to find “a place that my father and I really loved and meant a lot to us,” adding that they spent their most precious time together in Malibu.

As for her funeral, Doherty said she would have preferred a “shorter” list of attendees and wanted the ceremony to take place in her home, “but like a party.”

Doherty was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015, but went into remission in 2017. In 2020, she announced that her disease had returned as stage four cancer.

She had spent months getting her affairs in order. In an episode of her podcast that aired in April, Doherty said she was get rid of their material possessions so that her mother wouldn’t have to worry about her after her death.

“It feels like you’re giving up something that was very important and special to you,” she said. “But you know it’s the right thing to do and that it will give you a sense of peace and calm because you’re helping the people you’re leaving behind have a cleaner and easier transition.”

Like Doherty, more and more Americans are choosing cremation over a traditional casket burial. According to the National Funeral Director’s Association, the national cremation rate surpassed the casket burial rate in 2015 and has continued to rise since then.

One reason for this is that cremations tend to be less expensive than burials: In 2021, the average cost of a funeral with viewing and burial nationwide was about $7,848, while the average cost of a funeral with cremation was about $6,971.

However, cremation also has a significant impact on the environment, leading to alternatives such as aquamation, where the body is dissolved in a vessel, leaving behind bone minerals that are then ground up, or human composting, where the body is mixed with plant material and processed into soil.

A representative for Doherty did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment outside of regular business hours.