Love After Loss
- Actor and food host Stanley Tucci went on a romantic ski trip with his wife Felicity Blunt this week in Italy and posted an adorable video of the pair flirting on a mountain top.
- Tucci, an oral cancer survivor who was diagnosed in 2017, lost his first wife to breast cancer in 2009, and it is comforting to see the resilient TV star enjoying life, a reminder that it is possible to find happiness after heavy times.
- If you’re going through the grieving process, remember that the deep emotions you are feeling are meaningful but eventually will shift. If you approach them with compassion, kindness, and eventual acceptance, you will come away from this period with a renewed sense of resilience and purpose.
“Do you ski here often?” Tucci, 63, teased with his arm around the literary agent, sister of actress Emily Blunt, who seemed a little shy in front of the camera. “Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone,” he said with a smile.
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According to PEOPLE, the pair first met in 2006 at Tucci’s The Devil Wears Prada premiere with his co-star Emily Blunt. His late wife, Kate Tucci, accompanied him that night. She was going through breast cancer treatment at the time. Tragically, he lost his love a few years later. In 2010, Tucci and Blunt crossed paths again at her sister’s wedding to actor John Krasinksi held at George Clooney’s Lake Como, Italy home and wound up marrying in 2012.
12 years later, they are still celebrating their love together. Blunt is the reason for Tucci becoming “the internet’s boyfriend” after multiple generations of women (and men) swooned over the star during an impromptu video of making his wife a Negroni cocktail. Now he’s a food and cocktail host with his own series, working in the country he loves most.
Tucci’s Oral Cancer Journey
On the surface, Tucci may look like he’s living the perfect life, a congenial, talented guy who has achieved a lot of success in film and on TV, happily married, but he has certainly been through some very hard times. First, losing Kate to breast cancer, then in 2017, Tucci learned that he had oral cancer.
“I was so afraid,” Tucci said in a December interview with Willie Geist on Today‘s Sunday Sitdown.
“I mean, they had to drag me kicking and screaming but I wouldn’t be around if I hadn’t done that,” he said of Felicity and Emily Blunt urging him to take care of his health.
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What he went through with Kate when she was just 47 years old made him more terrified of his own diagnosis.
“My late wife and I, we traveled all over the world trying to find a cure for her. So when I got it, I was completely shocked,” he shared. “I was terrified, absolutely terrified.”
Though the treatment was tough on the Spotlight star, Tucci is more appreciative than ever after having difficulty eating for two years. He said he lived with a lot of pain in his jaw before finding out what was wrong.
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“I had a scan, but the scan missed it,” the father of five recalled of the delayed diagnosis. Doctors then found a 3-cm tumor at the base of his tongue.
“They couldn’t do surgery because the tumor was so big. It’s a miracle that it didn’t metastasize. It had been in me so long.”
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Tucci went through 35 days of radiation and seven chemotherapy treatments. His sense of taste and smell was affected and he had to eat through a feeding tube.
Once he went into remission the following year, he began to regain his senses and was able to eat again, and then when he landed his Nat Geo show, it was “just the most exciting thing in the world.”
How to Cope After Losing a Loved One to Cancer
Understandably, it took Tucci a while to cope with his emotions after losing Kate to cancer. Losing a loved one and grieving is something many people can relate to. And it never truly goes away, but that’s okay. It’s about finding ways to live with those feelings and find happiness again.
Grief is defined as the devastation that occurs when we lose someone and comes in five stages.
The stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. These labels help us frame and identify what we may be feeling. These stages can occur in any order.
WATCH: Managing the stages of grief
As you find yourself experiencing some of these stages, remember that the deep emotions you are feeling are meaningful but will eventually shift. If you approach them with compassion, kindness, and eventual acceptance, you will come away from this period with a renewed sense of resilience and purpose.
“Grief comes in waves,” Dr. Scott Irwin, psychiatrist and Director of Supportive Care Services at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
“They’re grieving the change in their life, the future they had imagined is now different,” Dr. Irwin added.
Some days can be tougher than others, but Dr. Irwin says talk therapy can be helpful. If you are suffering from grief or any other emotions affecting your daily activities, it’s important to reach out to your doctor, a therapist, or a support group in your community for the support you need. And remember, finding happiness again is possible, and in Tucci’s case, finding love again as well.
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