This spring, Stanley Tucci returns to the big screen as Nigel, his unforgettable character from The Devil Wears Prada. The long-awaited sequel, one of the year’s most anticipated releases, arrives at a particularly meaningful moment for the actor. At 64, Tucci says he feels happier than ever, grounded in personal fulfillment, emotional maturity, and a deeply content family life.
Reflections on time, love, and the future
Yet beneath that calm lies a more sobering reflection on time and love. In a recent interview with The Times, Tucci, 64, shared one of his most intimate thoughts, rooted in his marriage to Felicity Blunt. "I'm sad that I won't see her get old and that I won't be able to look after her if she needs looking after," he said, aware of the 21-year age gap between them. Still, the life they have built together, their family, their home, is one that he describes with complete contentment.
A love story that began on a red carpet
Their love story has the sweep of a film plot. They first met in 2006 at the premiere of The Devil Wears Prada. Tucci was part of the cast, and Felicity attended alongside her sister, Emily Blunt, one of the movie’s stars. The encounter was cordial, almost a footnote, yet quietly consequential.
They would meet again four years later, in 2010, at the wedding of Emily Blunt and John Krasinski. In the warmth of that intimate celebration, something shifted. Tucci was still grieving the loss of his first wife, Kathryn, who died in 2009 after a battle with cancer, and he had not imagined he could fall in love again. Then Felicity arrived, at precisely the right moment. Fate or coincidence, the reconnection became the beginning of a new chapter, one that led to their wedding in 2012. Since then, they have remained one of the most private and admired couples in the film world, even though Felicity stands outside it. She is a literary agent.
It is beautiful aging together
In that same interview, the actor adds, “I think there’s something really beautiful about people aging together. And unless there’s some miracle, that can’t happen.”
Tucci and Blunt share two children, alongside the three he has from his first marriage. Together they have faced serious challenges, including his tongue cancer diagnosis in 2017. It remains a painful memory. Felicity was caring for two very young children, one nearly a newborn, while Tucci spent months unable to eat or speak normally.
From recovery to the kitchen
He developed a "friendship" with King Charles III and unexpectedly assumed the role of a culinary ambassador. It may have been during that recovery period that a passion fully took shape, one that is now inseparable from his identity. Tucci's love of cooking has undoubtedly transformed him into a global phenomenon beyond the realm of film. “Now I’m as famous for cooking as I am for acting,” he jokes.
A new life as a global food figure
During the pandemic, his videos making Negronis, pasta, and Italian cocktails went viral and pushed him into new territory as a food communicator. That organic success led him to host Searching for Italy and, more recently, Tucci in Italy, two shows that celebrate Italian food and culture with a deeply personal sensibility.
Cooking his way into cultural diplomacy
His culinary influence has continued to grow. Today he shares recipes and videos with nearly five million followers, has published a cookbook, and starred in a television journey across Italy tasting the specialties of each region. His passion is so well known and so respected that even King Charles III has taken notice. The monarch asked for his collaboration to organize a private dinner at Highgrove, his country residence, an evening meant to celebrate and strengthen Anglo-Italian relations.