Stanley Tucci is speaking about his private cancer battle, revealing that three years ago he had a tumor at the base of his tongue.
The 60-year-old actor, whose first wife, Kate Spath-Tucci, died of breast cancer over a decade ago, disclosed his past heath scare for the first time in an interview with Vera magazine published this week.
The cancerous mass was “too big to operate,” Tucci explained, so he had to undergo “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 shared.
Given his family’s past history with the disease, Tucci was particularly concerned with how his diagnosis would affect his five children. The actor has three children from his first marriage and shares a son and daughter with his current wife, Felicity Blunt, the sister of his “Devil Wears Prada” co-star Emily Blunt.
“The kids were great, but it was hard for them,” he said. “I had a feeding tube for six months. I could barely make it to the twins’ high school graduation.”
Tucci said his treatments were successful and the cancer is unlikely to return.
In a heartbreaking interview with “CBS Sunday Morning” earlier this year, Tucci spoke beautifully about his late wife, who died in 2009 at age 47, explaining that it’s “still hard after 11 years.”
“You never stop grieving,” he said. “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.”
Reflecting on how his own diagnosis changed his outlook on life, Tucci told Vera, “[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.”
The veteran performer has indeed been booked and busy as of late, starring in three films in the past few years, including the well-reviewed gay romance drama “Supernova” alongside Colin Firth in which he portrays a man battling early onset dementia.
In addition to his film career, Tucci has also developed quite a following for his culinary aptitude, which he parlayed into his own CNN food and travel documentary series, “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy.” The series was recently renewed for a second season and scored the actor multiple Emmy nominations.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.