Alyssa Milano Dodges Shannen Doherty Firing Claims

Alyssa Milano's responding to claims she got Shannen Doherty fired from "Charmed" way back in the early 2000s ... well, kinda.

The actress -- who played Phoebe Halliwell on 178 episodes of "Charmed" from 1998 to 2006 -- hit the stage at 2024 MegaCon Orlando Friday to talk about the hit show ... and, of course, Shannen Doherty's controversial comments came up.

ICYMI ... Doherty hopped on her podcast titled "Let's Be Clear with Shannen Doherty" back in December and spoke with former costar Holly Marie Combs about their experiences on the show -- and with Milano.

Among the many stories -- Holly said Alyssa went to the producers and laid down an ultimatum ... axe Shannen or she'd quit and sue "Charmed" for being a hostile workplace which led to Doherty's unceremonious exit.

Obviously, fans needed to get an answer from Alyssa, and they got one ... just one that completely skirted the claims themselves.

Check out the video taken by a fan at the convention and posted to YouTube. Alyssa starts by saying she wants to address the elephant in the room, but she basically avoids the tusks and trunk entirely.

Instead of answering the claims directly, Milano kept reiterating how "sad" she was by all of the "toxicity" surrounding the show before saying she was upset "people can’t move past it. And I’m sad that we all can’t just celebrate the success of a show that meant so much to all of us."

It seems Milano did get choked up while saying her piece, appearing to brush away tears onstage ... but she didn't clear up what happened with Doherty's exit, and the whole thing actually makes it seem like Milano may have done exactly what SD accused her of.

BTW ... Alyssa's active on Twitter -- retweeting a couple posts about her comments at the convention, but not adding any new info as of yet.

Shannen's still got her podcast though ... so maybe another Alyssa Milano-filled episode coming soon?