Tori Spelling Just Found Out Her Father Aaron Spelling Insisted Her Character Stay A Virgin on ‘90210’ For Seven Seasons

Tori Spelling has referred to herself as “America’s virgin” in the past, referencing the fact that the TV character she is most known for, Donna Martin on Beverly Hills 90210, vowed not to have sex until marriage.

It’s a topic that comes up for Spelling fairly often, especially given the fact that she her her friend and former co-star Jennie Garth host 9021OMG, a podcast about the show that made them famous. On the most recent episode of the podcast, the pair spoke to 90210 producer Charles Rosin, who told Spelling that her father, show creator Aaron Spelling, pushed for his daughter’s character to remain a virgin. (Donna could only hold out for so long, she did end up having sex with longtime boyfriend David Silver, played by Brian Austin Green, during the show’s seventh season, as she was graduating college.)

“I remember very clearly when [Aaron] said to me, you know, that Donna should be a virgin,” Rosin said on the show. “And it was like, ‘Yes, absolutely she should.’” Rosin then revealed that Donna’s personal convictions helped the 90210 writers too, explaining, “we were able now to differentiate you” from the rest of the characters on the show.

Tori told Rosin that she “always suspected” that it was her father’s idea to keep her chaste.

“I never knew where it came from,” Spelling said. “I always suspected, and people say, like, ‘He kept his daughter virgin.’”

During a visit to The Drew Barrymore Show earlier this year, Tori embraced Donna’s legacy, saying, “I loved being America’s virgin.”

“Girls and boys used to come up to me and be like, ‘You’re a role model.’ I remember at the time thinking, ‘What is that?’” Spelling told Barrymore in February. “And they were like, ‘You show that it’s OK to be popular and be cool and still be a virgin for men and women.’ And I was like, ‘OK, I like this.’”