Chemistry on screen doesn't mean friendship off it. Some of television's best-loved duos went weeks without speaking between takes, fought over pay and billing, or settled scores in memoirs decades later.
Most of these rows are on the record because the stars themselves put them there, in interviews, podcasts and autobiographies. Quite a few ended in public reconciliations. Some never did.
Here are 22 casts whose behind-the-scenes tension has been documented by the people involved or by reputable reporting, and where each relationship stands now.
The 2000s and beyond
1. Sex and the City: Kim Cattrall and Sarah Jessica Parker
The best-known feud in modern TV went public in October 2017, when Cattrall told Piers Morgan she had “never” been friends with Parker and described a “toxic relationship”. In February 2018, after Parker sent condolences on the death of Cattrall's brother, Cattrall replied on Instagram: “You are not my family. You are not my friend.” Parker has said she “never responded” and called it “one person talking”, according to this timeline of their public statements.
When Cattrall made a cameo in And Just Like That… in 2023, she reportedly filmed it without seeing Parker or any of her old co-stars.
Where they are now: Not reconciled. Cattrall told the Los Angeles Times in 2022 that she had “no regrets” about speaking out.
2. Charmed: Shannen Doherty and Alyssa Milano
Doherty left Charmed in 2001 after three seasons, and her exit was reportedly linked to tension with Milano. On her podcast Let's Be Clear in December 2023, Doherty put the friction down to competitiveness. “There was a lack of female support,” she said, adding that the second season was especially hard (TVLine).
Milano addressed the tension in her 2021 book, Sorry Not Sorry. Doherty said she would never read it because the title showed Milano wasn't sorry.
Where they are now: Not reconciled. After Doherty died in July 2024, Milano said: “It's no secret that Shannen and I had a complicated relationship,” adding that “the world is less without her” (E! via NBC).
3. Grey's Anatomy: Isaiah Washington and T.R. Knight
In October 2006, during an on-set argument with Patrick Dempsey, Washington reportedly used a homophobic slur about co-star T.R. Knight, who wasn't there. Knight came out publicly shortly afterwards. Washington apologised for his “unfortunate use of words”, then denied using the slur backstage at the January 2007 Golden Globes. Knight later told Ellen DeGeneres that “everybody heard him”.
ABC dropped Washington from the show in June 2007. He came back for a single episode as Dr. Burke in 2014, as part of Sandra Oh's farewell storyline.
Where they are now: No public reconciliation between Washington and Knight has been reported.
4. Two and a Half Men: Charlie Sheen and Chuck Lorre
Sheen was fired from Two and a Half Men in 2011, after a profanity-laced public tirade against the show's co-creator, Chuck Lorre. The two didn't work together again for more than a decade.
Then Lorre reached out to Sheen's representatives, and cast him as a heightened version of himself in his Max comedy Bookie. The pair hugged at the table read. “I loved working with Charlie on ‘Two and a Half Men,'” Lorre said. “It was healing” (NBC Boston).
Where they are now: Reconciled in 2023. Lorre said “that friendship just suddenly seemed to be there again.”
5. Community: Chevy Chase and Dan Harmon
Chase and creator Dan Harmon clashed for three seasons. During the feud, Chase left Harmon an expletive-filled voicemail that later leaked, and Harmon gave a rude speech about Chase at a wrap party, according to Deadline's reporting summarised by Best Life. Chase left in 2012 by “mutual agreement”.
On Marc Maron's WTF podcast in 2023, Chase said the show “wasn't funny enough for me” and that he didn't want to be surrounded “by that table, every day, with those people” (Variety).
Where they are now: Partly patched up. Chase said in 2023 that Harmon “called and said he was sorry. I love him now,” but he hasn't seen him since 2012 and wasn't among the cast at the 2020 charity table read.
6. Glee: Lea Michele and her co-stars
The first public crack came in Naya Rivera's 2016 memoir, Sorry Not Sorry. Rivera wrote that Michele “didn't like sharing the spotlight” and “didn't say a word to me for all of Season 6” (TheWrap).
In June 2020, Samantha Marie Ware tweeted that Michele had made her “first television gig a living hell”, and several other former cast members publicly backed her up (NBC News). HelloFresh ended its partnership with Michele that week.
Where they are now: Michele apologised on Instagram on 3 June 2020 “for my behavior and for any pain which I have caused” (ET). Ware mocked the apology the same day.
7. Desperate Housewives: Teri Hatcher and the cast
The rumours started at a Vanity Fair cover shoot in 2005. Writer Ned Zeman, who was there, said Marcia Cross “lost it” when Golden Globe winner Hatcher was placed in the centre of the group shot, against ABC publicity's wishes (Irish Examiner). Hatcher said the spat was blown out of proportion, and Eva Longoria blamed a 16-hour day.
Thirteen years later, Jimmy Kimmel asked Longoria whether the whole cast were still friends. “No. But 99 percent of us are,” she said, without naming anyone (Hello!).
Where they are now: Unresolved in public. Hatcher has said she's “not so much” in touch with her former castmates.
8. The Vampire Diaries: Nina Dobrev and Paul Wesley
On screen, Elena and Stefan were soulmates. Off screen, they started out barely able to stand each other. “I respected Paul Wesley, I didn't like Paul Wesley,” Dobrev said on the Directionally Challenged podcast in June 2019, explaining that they “despised” each other early on (ET).
Wesley confirmed it weeks later. “When we first started shooting The Vampire Diaries, we totally clashed,” he told ET, calling the coverage “a little blown out of proportion, but it's true” (ET).
Where they are now: Reconciled. Wesley said in 2019 that they “developed this absolute mutual love”, and Dobrev says she sees him more than anyone else from the show.
9. Roseanne: Roseanne Barr and Sara Gilbert
ABC cancelled its Roseanne revival in May 2018 after Barr posted a racist tweet about former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett. Sara Gilbert, who played Darlene, publicly called the comments “abhorrent”, and the rest of the cast carried on without Barr in The Conners.
Barr blamed Gilbert. In March 2019 she told The Washington Post that Gilbert “destroyed the show and my life with that tweet” (ET). Gilbert has said she will “always love” Barr and still considers her family.
Where they are now: Not speaking. “There's nothing to talk about,” Barr told DailyMailTV in September 2019 (Yahoo).
The 80s and 90s
10. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: Will Smith and Janet Hubert
Hubert played Aunt Viv for three seasons before leaving in 1993, citing creative differences, and Daphne Maxwell Reid took over the role. For years Hubert criticised Smith publicly.
At HBO Max's reunion special in November 2020, they sat down together for the first time in 27 years. Hubert said she was never fired but turned down an offer that would have cut her pay. Smith admitted he “made the set very difficult for Janet” and hadn't been sensitive to what she was going through during her pregnancy (ET).
Where they are now: Reconciled in 2020. “We good?” Hubert asked. “We good,” Smith replied.
11. The X-Files: Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny
Anderson fought for about three years to be paid the same as Duchovny on the original series. When Fox revived the show in 2016, she said the studio came to her “with half of what they want to offer David”, though she ended up on equal pay (Gizmodo).
In November 2024, on Duchovny's Fail Better podcast, both admitted they didn't “speak to each other for weeks at a time” while filming. Duchovny said he had felt “attacked” over the pay issue back then; Anderson said she hadn't realised (Daily Beast).
Where they are now: Reconciled. Duchovny took responsibility for a “failure of companionship”, and the two cleared the air on the podcast in 2024.
12. Beverly Hills, 90210: Shannen Doherty and Jennie Garth
Doherty left 90210 in 1994 after four seasons, amid reported friction with co-stars, Garth in particular. Garth has said they once “took it outside” after an argument, though it never turned physical, and has since called the whole thing stupid (Looper).
Doherty told her side on her podcast in 2024: Garth was running a “Pants Down Day” prank on set, Doherty answered with “Skirt Up Day”, and “she lost it on me” (Audacy). Both came back for Fox's BH90210 revival in 2019.
Where they are now: Reconciled. Garth said they made peace well before Doherty's death in 2024: “We did. Absolutely” (inkl).
13. NYPD Blue: David Caruso and Steven Bochco
Caruso was the breakout star of NYPD Blue's first season and left just four episodes into the second, in 1994. TV Guide later ranked the exit among TV's biggest blunders (Wikipedia).
Co-creator Steven Bochco gave his version in his 2016 memoir, Truth Is a Total Defense. He called Caruso “terrific” in the role but said his behaviour on set was “cancerous”, that he clashed daily with co-creator David Milch, and that his agent's demands ran from Fridays off to a large private trailer and extra security. Bochco wrote that Caruso left without saying goodbye to the cast (THR excerpt via Yahoo).
Where they are now: No public reconciliation has been reported.
14. Moonlighting: Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis
Moonlighting ran on will-they-won't-they chemistry, but the production was tense, and the show became known for reruns when new episodes weren't finished in time (Hello!).
Shepherd didn't hide how she felt. In her 2000 memoir, Cybill Disobedience, she called Willis “a jerk”, while admitting the two had flirted when they first met and “never did finish what we started” (CinemaBlend).
Where they are now: Reconciled. Shepherd told People in October 2025 that they mended fences years ago: “Yeah, it was time” (AOL).
15. The Golden Girls: Bea Arthur and Betty White
The Golden Girls looked like the closest friends on TV, but White was candid that one of them wasn't keen on her. “She was not that fond of me,” White said of Arthur in 2011, as reported by the Village Voice. “She found me a pain in the neck sometimes” (The List).
Arthur's side of the story mostly comes second-hand, from her son and from Rue McClanahan's memoir (Yahoo).
Where they are now: Never publicly resolved. Arthur died in 2009, two years before White's comments.
The classics
16. Star Trek: William Shatner and George Takei
The Enterprise crew has been trading barbs for decades. In 2022 Shatner told The Times that Takei “has never stopped blackening my name” and called his former co-stars “bitter and embittered”. Takei answered in The Guardian, calling Shatner “a cantankerous old man” and a “prima donna”, while saying the rest of the cast had “a great camaraderie” (Fox News).
They can't even agree about Takei's wedding: Shatner says he wasn't invited, while Takei says Shatner didn't want to come.
Where they are now: Not reconciled. Takei said in December 2022 that it was “the very last time I talk about him” (CinemaBlend).
17. Three's Company: Suzanne Somers and the cast
When her contract came up for renegotiation, Somers' manager asked for $150,000 an episode, up from $30,000, plus 10% ownership of the series. Producers refused, her role was cut back, and her contract wasn't renewed (Mental Floss). “They fired me for asking to be paid commensurate with the men,” she said in 2020 (ET).
She left in 1981, and she and co-star Joyce DeWitt didn't speak for three decades.
Where they are now: Reconciled. DeWitt appeared on Somers' online show in February 2012 to end the feud. “It's time,” she said (ABC News). John Ritter had phoned Somers to say he forgave her a month before he died in 2003.
18. Laverne & Shirley: Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams
Williams left in 1982, when she was pregnant and her new contract would have had her working up to her due date. She sued Paramount and producer Garry Marshall for $20 million; the case was settled (AP via Yahoo).
Penny Marshall wrote in her 2012 memoir, My Mother Was Nuts, that the friendship was ruptured after Williams left, and that for years they only saw each other briefly at TV specials (MeTV).
Where they are now: Reconciled, about 15 years after the show ended. Marshall called it the conversation she “wished I'd been able to have fifteen years earlier”, and Williams later described her as “like my sister”.
19. Little House on the Prairie: Karen Grassle and Michael Landon
Grassle played Ma Ingalls opposite Landon's Pa. In her 2021 memoir, Bright Lights, Prairie Dust, she wrote that when she asked for a raise in the second season, standard practice on a hit show, “Michael did not want to give me a raise.” She said he then began to diminish her role, and that others on set could see he was annoyed (Fox News).
Where they are now: Reconciled before Landon's death in 1991. Grassle wrote him a letter, he replied with “the nicest note”, and they had a long phone call. “We mended fences,” she said.
20. CHiPs: Larry Wilcox and Erik Estrada
In season five, Estrada went on strike over syndication profits and missed three episodes, with Caitlyn Jenner (then credited as Bruce Jenner) filling in. Wilcox was gone before season six, in 1982 (Wikipedia).
On a podcast in September 2025, Wilcox said leaving wasn't his choice and alleged that Estrada had wanted him out, describing him in unprintable terms. Estrada's representative didn't respond to a request for comment (TheWrap).
Where they are now: Reconciled, according to Wilcox. He said he chose to “love on him unconditionally”, they reunited for TNT's CHiPs '99 in 1998, and “I actually enjoy him now.”
21. The Brady Bunch: Robert Reed and Sherwood Schwartz
Reed sent creator Sherwood Schwartz handwritten memos picking apart scripts he thought made no sense. “We fought over the scripts. Always over the scripts,” he said in 1983 (Wikipedia). He refused to appear in the 1974 finale, about a hair tonic that turns Greg's hair orange, so Mike Brady was written out with a single line (TVLine).
Schwartz blamed Reed's background, saying he “was spoiled because he was in a Shakespeare company in England.”
Where they are now: They kept working together anyway. Reed returned for the Brady revivals through The Bradys in 1990, clashing with Schwartz again, and died in 1992.
22. I Love Lucy: Vivian Vance and William Frawley
Fred and Ethel Mertz were TV's original bickering couple, and the actors reportedly didn't get on much better. Desi Arnaz wrote in his memoir, A Book, that Frawley badmouthed Vance and questioned her singing, while Vance “never felt any animosity toward him” (Cheat Sheet).
According to biographer Geoffrey Mark, Vance's reaction on learning who would play her husband was: “He could play my grandfather!” (Remind). The story that she toasted his death with champagne is most likely Hollywood folklore.
Where they are now: Never resolved on the record. When Frawley died in 1966, Vance told UPI “there's a great, big, funny and amusing light gone out of the world.”
Did You Know? When the stars of The Dukes of Hazzard, Tom Wopat and John Schneider, walked off the set over pay and a share of merchandising, producers replaced them with look-alike cousins Coy and Vance Duke. Ratings slipped, and by the end of the season both originals were back on bigger paychecks.
The 22 at a glance
| Show | Who | What happened | Resolved? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sex and the City | Kim Cattrall, Sarah Jessica Parker | Public falling-out from 2017; cameo filmed apart in 2023 | No |
| Charmed | Shannen Doherty, Alyssa Milano | Doherty left in 2001 amid reported tension | No |
| Grey's Anatomy | Isaiah Washington, T.R. Knight | Slur incident in 2006; Washington dropped in 2007 | No public reconciliation |
| Two and a Half Men | Charlie Sheen, Chuck Lorre | Sheen fired in 2011 after public tirade | Yes (2023) |
| Community | Chevy Chase, Dan Harmon | Voicemail, wrap-party speech; Chase left in 2012 | Partly (Harmon apologised) |
| Glee | Lea Michele, co-stars | Rivera's 2016 memoir; Ware's 2020 tweet | Michele apologised (2020) |
| Desperate Housewives | Teri Hatcher, cast | 2005 Vanity Fair shoot row; “99 percent” comment | No |
| The Vampire Diaries | Nina Dobrev, Paul Wesley | “Totally clashed” early on | Yes |
| Roseanne | Roseanne Barr, Sara Gilbert | 2018 cancellation; Barr blames Gilbert | No |
| The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air | Will Smith, Janet Hubert | Hubert's 1993 exit; 27 years apart | Yes (2020) |
| The X-Files | Gillian Anderson, David Duchovny | Pay gap; weeks without speaking | Yes (2024) |
| Beverly Hills, 90210 | Shannen Doherty, Jennie Garth | On-set clashes; Doherty left in 1994 | Yes |
| NYPD Blue | David Caruso, Steven Bochco | Caruso quit four episodes into season 2 | No public reconciliation |
| Moonlighting | Cybill Shepherd, Bruce Willis | Tense set; “jerk” in 2000 memoir | Yes |
| The Golden Girls | Bea Arthur, Betty White | White: “She was not that fond of me” | No |
| Star Trek | William Shatner, George Takei | Decades of public barbs | No |
| Three's Company | Suzanne Somers, cast | Pay demand; Somers out in 1981 | Yes (2012) |
| Laverne & Shirley | Penny Marshall, Cindy Williams | Williams left in 1982; lawsuit settled | Yes |
| Little House on the Prairie | Karen Grassle, Michael Landon | Raise refused in season 2 | Yes (before 1991) |
| CHiPs | Larry Wilcox, Erik Estrada | Wilcox says Estrada wanted him out | Yes, per Wilcox |
| The Brady Bunch | Robert Reed, Sherwood Schwartz | Script memos; Reed skipped the finale | Kept working together |
| I Love Lucy | Vivian Vance, William Frawley | Mutual dislike on set | No |
The Bottom Line
Money is behind more of these feuds than personality. Three's Company, The X-Files, Little House on the Prairie and CHiPs all trace back to pay, and Janet Hubert says a reduced offer was part of her Fresh Prince exit. Billing and screen time explain much of the rest.
Time does help, though. Ten of the 22 ended in public reconciliations, often decades later and usually on a podcast or a reunion special. The ones that never healed, Sex and the City, Star Trek and Roseanne, are the ones still making headlines.
