Stanley Tucci wasn’t there when his first wife, Kate, passed away. And there’s a reason
for it. As much as it was a tough blow, Stanley didn’t give up on love. Five kids,
another cancer battle, and joyful times altogether make Stanley Tucci and Felicity
Blunt’s love story one for the ages. In today’s video, we’ll have you tear up, so be ready.
The entertainment industry has had its fair share of iconic celebrity marriages. However, only a few
can rival that of Stanley Tucci and his wife, Felicity Blunt. Yes, yes, Emily Blunt’s sister.
The lovebirds have been together for ten years, which is long by Hollywood standards.
Both partners are doing well for themselves in their respective careers.
For Stanley, he’s been crushing it as an actor and producer on movies and TV shows.
Felicity is a virtuoso in the literary world.
Since 2005, she’d worked as a literary agent at the talent agency Curtis Brown. She is a fiction
aficionado who really enjoys the infinite worlds that come with the genre. “My fiction tastes are
broad but are unified by my desire to represent unique stories and smart voices,” she said.
Stanley and Felicity’s story is one of finding love again after loss.
When Tucci first encountered Blunt, he was still married to his first wife, Kate.
On the red carpet for the comedy-drama The Devil Wears Prada, Stanley and Kathryn bumped
into Emily Blunt and her sister Felicity. “That’s where I met Emily, and we became
friends. And actually, Felicity — Emily’s sister, met my wife,” Stanley said in 2021.
“She and Kate talked at the premiere that night, and I have a photo of them together.”
The pair reconnected four years later at Blunt’s sister’s wedding, where they
discovered that they had a lot in common. Felicity made a unique impression on Stanley,
thanks to her appetite. He reportedly said he had “never seen someone so
slender enjoy her food so much.” Stanley and Felicity began talking
that weekend about their love of food and then made plans to meet up in London, where she lived,
and he was going to work next. “The first time we went out,
we ate at this little restaurant that wasn’t really good food, but we had such a nice time.”
The then-friends went to another restaurant, where they had a four-hour meal. By the end of it,
Stanley was “so full,” but Felicity asked to see a cheese cart. “I thought that’s incredible,”
he said. That restaurant would ultimately be where the couple had their wedding reception.
The Supernova star later elaborated on The Queen Latifah Show about how the rest
unfolded. “We started eating out a lot, and then she came and stayed with me in America,
and we started cooking together, and it was great,” Stanley told the host.
Their little rendezvous led to more food-related dates that finally blossomed into romance.
The two got married in a quiet ceremony in 2012 after being engaged for a year.
For most Hollywood marriages that hit the rocks, there is a lack of communication
in the relationship. For Tucci, his first marriage ended due to a tragedy.
Kate was diagnosed with breast cancer right as he was about to start filming The Devil Wears Prada.
She received treatment while Stanley worked on the movie, and later accompanied him to the premiere.
Although Stanley and Kate were married for 14 years, their relationship
wasn’t always perfect. In 2002, Stanley left Kate and had an extended affair with
actress Edie Falco . The affair eventually ended, and Stanley then reunited with Kate.
The two shared another seven years of marriage, going through the terrible ordeal together.
“We tried everything we could do to save her,” Tucci told The Guardian. “I wish that I could
have done more and that I could have been with her at the moment she passed away.”
Opening up about that critical moment, Stanley said he couldn’t be in that room, because he knew
it would be so devastating that he wouldn’t be able to take care of the kids after. Aww, Stanley…
“Her death is still incomprehensible to me,” he says nowadays “her absence unreal.”
The actor revealed that he had feelings of guilt just after proposing to Blunt, as he felt it was
all too soon. Stanley proposed to Felicity in November 2011 while on a trip to Berlin.
“I panicked instantly afterwards,” Stanley said. “It was very hard to go on vacations
at first, really hard to go with Felicity someplace. I felt guilty. It’s horrible.”
Ultimately, he admitted that letting go of Kate was difficult; nevertheless,
he knew she would want him to move on. “You never stop grieving. You never stop
grieving,” Tucci added. “But you can’t let it — and she would never want any of us to — to wallow
in that grief and let it take over our lives. She would never want that. She wasn’t like that.”
Thankfully, he didn’t let fear hold him back from falling in love again.
In August 2012, the duo confirmed that they had secretly gotten married. Later that fall,
they had a formal wedding at Middle Temple Hall in London, and Emily was a bridesmaid.
Today, Stanley is grateful he saw it through with Felicity.
“It is not easy to find somebody who is going to take on three
teenagers and a widower. That’s a lot,” he said. “But she was willing to take on that challenge.
She cares for the kids as if they are her own, and it is a tough role, being a stepparent.”
A few years after exchanging vows, Stanley and Felicity grew their family with children
of their own. Then, at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the father of
five dished on what it was like quarantining with his entire family. “We can’t help but
think how lucky we are to have one another, a roof over our heads, food in our bellies.”
The actor truly appreciates life, not only due to his disposition, but also because he had to
go through the same thing his first wife did. Four years ago, Tucci began having shooting pains
in his jaw, which became unbearable. He went to see a doctor in London, who immediately noticed
a massive tumor at the base of the tongue. “It was too big to operate, so they had to
do high-dose radiation and chemo. 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.
Side effects were predictably unpleasant. His mouth erupted in ulcers. Everything smelled
repellent — even traces of cooking on other people’s clothes. Tucci required large doses
of morphine, resulting in chronic constipation. Even a sip of water “burned like battery acid”.
The actor had a feeding tube for six months, and he could barely make it to the twins’ high school
graduation. According to Stanley, the kids and Felicity were amazing throughout the whole ordeal.
Thankfully, his tongue was saved, and daily visits from his friend and fellow
actor Colin Firth helped a lot. Tucci went on to say that the cancer is unlikely to return.
“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.”
After his illness, Tucci said he discovered that food wasn’t just a huge part of his life:
“It basically was my life,” not only sustaining him but also enriching him.
On that note, Stanley’s Instagram page is packed with clips showing the happy couple combining,
mixing, and heating ingredients for food and cocktails and more.
The pair also gave fans more insight into their passion for food through the cookbook
they co-wrote. It contained the family’s wine pairings, updated recipes, amazing photos,
and family memories for the upcoming generation of Italian food lovers.
The lovebirds have been through quite a lot, always making the most of the time they share.