Holly Marie Combs Talks About Parallels Between Being Part of Charmed and Pretty Little Liars

Two of our favorite Charmed ladies are back together again!

At 90s Con in Hartford, Conn., on Sunday, March 30, former costars Rose McGowan and Holly Marie Combs, both 51, came together for a fun-filled panel, moderated by Sabrina the Teenage Witch alumna Jenna Leigh Green. Their fellow costar, Jennifer Rhodes, was unable to attend.

During the discussion, the pair talked about memories of creating the beloved WB series. When asked about transitioning from Charmed to playing a mom on Pretty Little Liars, just a few years later. Combs opened up about what it was like watching another all-female cast thrive, this time from a different perspective.

"I embraced it because you know, at that point, the network was notorious for casting young-looking parents," Combs said.

"You're like five years older than your child," McGowan laughs.

"Literally! But I was like, 'Hey, I'd rather have people say she looks too young to be Lucy Hale's mom,' then say, 'Oh, she got old,'" Combs said.

"And you know what? It was kind of a mirror experience because I got to watch the girls go through a lot of what we did," she continued, adding, "They were far more professional than we were."

Charmed ran on The WB (now The CW) from 1998 to 2006, for eight seasons. In addition to McGowan and Combs, who played Halliwell sisters Paige and Piper, respectively, Alyssa Milano and Shannen Doherty also starred on the series as fellow Halliwell sisters Phoebe and Prue.

McGowan stepped in after Doherty's departure from the series.

Several former Charmed cast members previously looked back on the late Doherty's legacy during a special panel discussion at 90s Con in September 2024. The Beverly Hills, 90210 alumna died in July 2024 at age 53 after living with cancer.

At one point, Combs recalled how Doherty helped get her cast on the popular series.

"I knew Shannen before the show, we met when I was 19," Combs said. "And we had actually gone to network with another person to be Phoebe and the network didn’t like her. They didn’t like me either. So they wanted to keep Shannen and recast the other two."

However, "Shannen and [executive producer] Aaron [Spelling] said we’re not really the show without Holly," Combs continued. "It was a negotiation. I was supposed to be auditioning for Phoebe which would’ve never worked. Shannen was supposed to be Piper. We had to convince Aaron we were old enough to play the older characters — he actually asked for our IDs. He saw [Shannen] as a little girl still."

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90s Con is running through Sunday, March 30, at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford.