Stanley Tucci on how wife Felicity Blunt helped him through ‘brutal’ cancer treatment: ‘I was so afraid’

Actor also talked about how his first wife, Kate Spath-Tucci, had died from the disease

Stanley Tucci has opened up about how his wife, the literary agent Felicity Blunt, helped him through his treatment for oral cancer.

The Devil Wears Prada actor, 62, who was diagnosed with the illness in 2017, told Willie Geist on Sunday Sitdown that “it was terrifying” when he first learned he was sick.

Tucci reflected on how he and his late wife, actor Kate Spath-Tucci, had “travelled all over the world trying to find a cure for her” before she died from breast cancer in 2009. “So when I got it, I was completely shocked,” he said. “I was terrified, absolutely terrified.”

Speaking about the high-dose radiation and chemotherapy he underwent, Tucci described the treatments as “brutal” and “awful”, saying: “I lost 35 pounds. I couldn’t eat. I had a feeding tube for six months and everything tasted like you-know-what and smelled like you-know-what.

“And it took months and months and months for me to finally be able to eat again and then taste properly again.”

“I was so afraid, but Felicity was very insistent,” he said. “I mean that she had to drag me, kicking and screaming, but now, I wouldn’t be around if I hadn’t done that [treatment].”

He said: “She was incredible. Still is incredible.”

Blunt is the sister of Tucci’s The Devil Wears Prada co-star Emily Blunt.

Stanley Tucci and Felicity Blunt (Getty Images)

Tucci completed his treatment in 2018 and has been in remission since.

He is currently appearing in the Prime Video show Citadel, and is preparing for season three of his travel show Searching For Italy, a show exploring the country’s cuisine that he started making after he was able to enjoy food again.