Kaley Cuoco recalls chilly welcome from Rose McGowan when she joined “Charmed”: 'I still don't know if she liked me'
Kaley Cuoco recalls chilly welcome from Rose McGowan when she joined “Charmed”: 'I still don't know if she liked me'
Ryan ColemanMon, March 2, 2026 at 10:45 PM UTC
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Rose McGowan and Kaley Cuoco on 'Charmed' in 2005Credit: Mitchell Haddad/Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett CollectionKey Points -
Kaley Cuoco is recalling her rocky first encounter with the cast of Charmed.
While Alyssa Milano "ran over to me and welcomed me the show," Cuoco says that Rose McGowan seemed "maybe not as happy" to meet her.
McGowan replaced Shannen Doherty after she left the series in a cloud of scandal in 2001, while Cuoco came on for the eighth and final season in 2005.
If TV casts are like families, they aren't immune from classic family dynamics. Kaley Cuoco felt that in the positive and the negative sense when she joined the cast of Charmed in 2005.
"You know when you do so many things and you just forget about terrible moments?" Cuoco asked Dax Shepard and Monica Padman on the Feb. 9 episode of their Armchair Episode podcast. Shepard had asked the Flight Attendant star if she might describe her entrée to the eighth and final season of the hit supernatural drama as "dicey," to which she retorted, "Girl."
"Imagine this: I've never met anyone. It's their gallery shoot," which she described as a full day of shooting "new photos with the cast... I'm the new girl. You've got Alyssa Milano, Rose McGowan, and Holly Marie Combs. I've never met them. Think about that. I'm joining their family photo, and I'm 21."
The photoshoot itself wasn't the dicey part. As Cuoco explained, that came during lunch hour.
Alyssa Milano and Kaley Cuoco on 'Charmed'Credit: Mitchell Haddad/WB
Cuoco joked that coming off a four-year run on the ABC sitcom 8 Simple Rules, she felt "the hottest I've ever been, by the way. I'm thinking I'm the coolest thing ever, but also terrified."
Milano, who originated the series with Combs and Shannen Doherty in 1998, quickly alleviated that fear.
"I walk in that gallery, and I am so freaking nervous. It's on their lunch break. They're all in the corners eating. I walk in, Alyssa Milano sees me, and — I will always tell this story about her — she got up, ran over to me ,and welcomed me the show, gave me the biggest hug in the world, so happy, so kind. I will never forget that."
McGowan had already fully immersed herself into the fabric of the show after taking over for Doherty in season 4, though controversy about the casting change still lingered over the series.
"Rose [was] maybe not as happy. I don't know," Cuoco recalled. "I still don't know if she likes me. I don't know. But Alyssa was amazing. I was terrified. It's a weird thing coming into a show with them in year eight, and I only did the one season."
Entertainment Weekly has reached out to representatives for McGowan and Milano for comment.
The original Charmed trio of Milano, Doherty, and Combs, who played magical sisters Phoebe, Prue, and Piper Halliwell, have publicly litigated the true nature Doherty's exit extensively since her final episode in 2001.
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Combs claimed on Doherty's Let's Be Clear podcast in 2023 that Milano had Doherty fired from the show.
"We were told [by Alyssa] that it's [Shannen] or me," by producer Jonathan Levin, Combs said. While Combs claimed she and Doherty "refused to speak" to a "corporate mediator" hired to resolve the issue, Milano "built a case for herself."
Milano neither confirmed nor denied that claim in 2024, instead lamenting that "a show that has meant so much to so many people has been tarnished by a toxicity that is still — to this day, almost a quarter of a century later — still happening."
Doherty then responded to that response, stating that she and Combs "simply told the truth because the truth actually does matter... There is no revisionist history happening."
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Doherty's Prue is killed at the end of season 3, and the arrival of the sisters' to-that-point unknown half-sibling, Paige Matthews (McGowan), reinstates the all-important sisterly "power of three" in season 4.
McGowan has staked out neutral territory in the Charmed wars, also noting on Doherty's podcast that she "did not understand the backstory" when she joined the series, but because she "was persona non grata" in Hollywood at the time, she "related" to Doherty's experience of having "the media machine lie about you."
Cuoco, meanwhile, shared that Milano's kindness on her day one has changed the way she treats newcomers on her own sets.
"Anyone that came in" to The Big Bang Theory, which she starred on for 12 years, "I was very aware of, like, this must be so weird for you. So I always remembered that from Alyssa to this day. I was like that before, but still, you got to go the extra mile in a situation like that."
You can watch Cuoco's full interview on Armchair Expert above.
on Entertainment Weekly
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