In a new interview, Stanley Tucci has reflected on a private battle he had with cancer just three years ago. Speaking to Virgin Atlantic’s inflight magazine Vera, the Devil Wears Prada star revealed that doctors found a tumor at the base of his tongue that was too big to operate. He didn’t go into many details on his treatment but noted he was forced to undergo high-dosage radiation and chemo to remove it.
“[Cancer] makes you more afraid and less afraid at the same time. I feel much older than I did before I was sick. But you still want to get ahead and get things done,” he told the publication.
Tucci sadly lost his first wife, Kate Tucci, to breast cancer in 2009 and vowed never to endure her kind of aggressive treatment.
“I’d vowed I’d never do anything like that, because my first wife died of cancer, and to watch her go through those treatments for years was horrible,” he said.
Tucci says he is now in remission and the cancer is unlikely to return. The actor is father to twins Isabel and Nicolo, 21, and Camilla, 19 with his late wife and shares two younger children, Matteo, 6, and Emilia, 3, with his second wife Felicity Blunt.
“The kids were great, but it was hard for them,” Tucci added. “I had a feeding tube for six months. I could barely make it to the twins’ high school graduation.”
Not only is Tucci our on-screen father and wardrobe extraordinaire (remember those Burlesque scenes?!), he also provided great comfort (and was extremely easy on the eyes) via Instagram with his viral cocktail-making videos in lockdown. He reflected on the viral social media moment and said it was his wife who encouraged him to publish it.
“I don’t know what happened,” he said. “It was so weird. I made this video and my wife told me to put it up on Instagram. All of a sudden it was everywhere and everyone was saying I was a ‘sexy bartender’. I was like, ‘Boy, people are desperate.'”
He added, “I’ve been around a long time, but people have never really seen me at home, so I think they saw a different side.”
