‘I’m Incredibly Lucky:’ Stanley Tucci Praises His Second Wife Whose ‘Undying Attention’ Sustained Him During Cancer Fight

The actor's first wife, Kate, passed away from breast cancer in 2009. In 2017, Tucci learned that he had cancer in the base of his tongue. He had to be fed through a tube while he underwent 35 days of radiation and seven grueling chemotherapy sessions. The treatment temporarily destroyed the actor's senses of taste and smell.

Tucci had lived with severe jaw pain for two years leading up to his diagnosis. “I had a scan, but the scan missed it. And of course, when you think that there might be something wrong, you’re also afraid that there is something wrong,” he said.

When he was finally diagnosed, his doctors discovered a three-centimeter tumor on his tongue. "They couldn’t do surgery because the tumor was so big," he said. "It’s a miracle that it didn’t metastasize. It had been in me so long."

After the actor's treatment ended in 2018, it was a few months before he was able to eat and before he started to build back his strength. Now, the 61-year-old is in the clear. He lives with Felicity in London, and has been traveling throughout Italy for his CNN food and travel show. The second season of the show will be released this spring.

Stanley Tucci's Cancer Ties

Stanley Tucci is not only a cancer survivor, but his first wife, Kate Spath-Tucci, died in 2009 after a battle with breast cancer. She was 47 years old.

In an interview with CBS Sunday Morning, Tucci says of his loss, "It's still hard after 11 years. It's still hard. And it will always be hard. But you can't let it. … and she would never want any of us to ever wallow in that grief and let it take over our lives. She would never want that. She wasn't like that."

Doug Wednt lost his wife to ovarian cancer. Here, he discusses facing cancer as a team, and moving forward after losing a loved one to cancer.

Getting Back to 'Normal' After Cancer

Stanley Tucci's television show signaled an important moment for him: getting back to normal after beating cancer. But what does that really mean? We have all been trying to get "back to normal" since March 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic began.

However, cancer survivors, like Tucci, once they hear those magic words "no evidence of disease" getting back to normal can be difficult. And we are not sure what it means, considering "normal" is different for everyone.

One thing we know for certain is that things are going to change after you have had cancer that is part of the process. But it does not have to be a bad thing.

Follow That Fire: Life After Cancer Will be Different, That Doesn't Have to be a Bad Thing

After CC Webster was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma at 29 years old, she tells SurvivorNet she was struck by the overwhelming anxiety she started to feel.

"In life after cancer, I experienced an entirely new level of anxiety that I didn't know existed," Webster says. "Earth-shattering anxiety that makes you sweat, and makes your heart race. I had to learn how to manage myself in that, and how to allow myself to process the trauma that I had just been through."

Webster says what finally got her back on her feet was facing her anxiety head-on. Eventually, she was able to walk away from her cancer journey with a new outlook on life, something Stanley Tucci, and every other cancer survivor, can relate to.

Contributing: Sydney Schaefer

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