“I’m not going to lie to you; it hurts a lot to read the stuff I read about myself, and it hurts me and it hurts my mom a lot,” said Doherty, who choked back tears as she looked at her mother, who was nearby. Doherty acknowledged she had only herself to blame for much of what had been written about her, but she later asked reporters to give her another chance.

“I hate to use the word ‘unfair’ because, again, I have to stand up and say it wasn’t just the press,” she said. “I played a huge part, a huge part, and everybody has a job. And if I’m creating some of the drama, then you guys have a job to report it.

“But where I start to say ‘OK, now we’re getting out of hand’ is when nobody lets it die,” she said. “Nobody says, ‘You know what? She was young. Give her a break.’ Give me a chance to mess up again. Stop writing about stuff that happened 10 years ago. Stop bringing up every bad thing in my life. And give me another chance to mess up. If I mess up again, then write about it. But just let me breathe and let my parents breathe. Let them pick up the paper and it says one nice thing about me.”

You got it, Shannen. We are moving on to the fact that you said you have been on only one date in the last 18 months and have reached a time in your life when you can declare: “I don’t need a man to make me happy.”

Looking fit in a strapless black top and white slacks and refreshingly her age (read: no Botox), Doherty ‘fessed up about something else regarding her show. She is not selling herself as an authority on relationships.

“I think an expert doesn’t mess up nearly as many times as I have,” she said. “I think that I’m good with getting over relationships. I’m good with dealing with the guilt, the tears and the mourning and the grief because God knows I’ve done it enough.”