Stanley Tucci tried to break up with Emily Blunt’s sister Felicity over 21-year age gap: ‘I was afraid’
Stanley Tucci said he tried to break up with his now-wife Felicity Blunt after their 21-year age gap took a toll on him.
Appearing on BBC Radio 4’s “Desert Island Discs” podcast last week, the actor, 62, opened up about falling in love with Emily Blunt’s sister shortly after losing his first wife, Kate Spath-Tucci, to cancer.
“I was afraid to get into a relationship and I kept trying to break it off because I am 21 years older than she is and I didn’t want to feel old for the rest of my life. But I knew this was an incredibly special person,” Tucci told host Lauren Laverne.
The actor, who shared daughters Isabel and Nicolo, 23, and Camilla, 21, with Kate, first met Felicity in 2006 at the premiere of his hit film “The Devil Wears Prada.”
“She and Kate talked a lot that night,” Tucci shared.
Tucci’s world was ripped apart when his wife of 14 years lost her battle with stage 4 breast cancer in 2009.
Tucci, after a period of mourning, reconnected with Felicity at Emily’s wedding to “The Office” star John Krasinski in 2012.
“Felicity has been so incredible taking on a widower and three children whose mother died. That’s a huge thing, at a very young age too. If anybody made things better for all of us, it’s her. She’s the one.”
After tying the knot in 2012, the pair welcomed son Matteo Oliver, 8, and daughter Emilia Giovanna, 5.
Tucci admitted he felt guilty over Kate’s death, saying he felt “helpless” in not being able to help her overcome the illness.
“And I know you felt you couldn’t be with her in the end, which must have brought some complicated emotions to the surface for you,” Laverne said to the actor.
“Yeah, very,” he responded. “I was afraid it would affect me so greatly that I wouldn’t be able to go on and take care of the kids. That it would overwhelm me, so I had to step away.”
“Other people were there with her, my stepdaughter and friends, and that was a good thing. I did what I had to do to help the kids get along. But you still feel guilty about it, you feel sad,” he added.
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Speaking in September 2022, Tucci said he knows “it will always be hard” for him to live without Kate.
“You never stop grieving. You never stop grieving,” he told “CBS This Morning. “And it’s still hard after 11 years, it’s still hard, and it always will be hard.”
“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,” he said, adding, “She would never want that. She wasn’t like that.”
