Susan Lucci Is Living Her Best Life In Her 70s & Feels As ‘Good Now’ – Or Even Better – As In Her 20s

Jan 25, 2023

American actress Susan Lucci is best known for portraying the role of Erica Kane on the soap opera "All My Children." She was a major player in the series for its entire network run, which spanned from 1970 to 2011. Lucci has been cited as one of the highest-paid actors in daytime TV by The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. Throughout her time on "All My Children," the star was nominated for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series 21 times in total. However, she only took home the award once.

Outside of her time on "All My Children," Lucci has appeared as a guest star on many television series, including "Dallas," "Hot in Cleveland" and "Army Wives." She has also gone on to host the crime series "Deadly Affairs" and starred in the show "Devious Maids." In 1990, Lucci had the opportunity to host "Saturday Night Live," and she was considered one of TV's biggest stars during that era.

In her personal life, Lucci was married to Australian chef Helmut Huber since 1969, but sadly he passed in March 2022. The couple shared two children, a daughter, Liza Huber, and a son, Andreas Huber. In 2018, Lucci experienced chest pains and sought medical attention. Doctors discovered that she had two blocked cardiac arteries, and she underwent emergency surgery to place two arterial stents in her heart. The actress recovered but experienced a similar event in 2022. 

Lucci turned 76 in 2022 but is still as stunning as ever. The daytime star has opened up about her skincare routine and revealed that there are some cosmetic procedures involved in keeping up her glowing complexion. Keep reading to learn more about Lucci's heart attacks and why she says Botox is a "good thing."

In March 2022, Lucci opened up about what she felt during her two heart attacks. "First of all, women should be aware that sometimes women's symptoms for heart attack or heart disease can be different than men's. Sometimes they're the same, but oftentimes they're different or there are additional symptoms. I had heard an interview that a woman recorded about her symptoms, and that's how I knew that I was in some distress," she shared.

Lucci continued:

"She felt that an elephant was pressing on her chest, that was the best way to describe it, and I agreed with that very much. That's what I was feeling—intense pressure on my chest. I also had shortness of breath, and I was feeling discomfort radiating around my ribcage from the front to the back. Those are very classic symptoms for a woman."

The star explained that she felt the same symptoms again three years later, but this time she was prepared. Lucci said: "Those are the symptoms that I felt three years ago when I had avoided a fatal heart attack by acting on the symptoms. More recently, just a few weeks ago, I was feeling some similar symptoms. What was different this time and which is another woman symptom, I felt a sharp coming and going pain in my jaw."

The "All My Children" actress warned her fans about the importance of listening to your body. "Listen to your heart and act on (the symptoms)," Lucci said. "Give yourself permission to take good care of yourself. Be your own best friend. Be your own advocate. You'll save your life."

Fans have also been in awe of Lucci’s fitness, which does, in fact, take some work. But it’s work that Lucci gladly puts in. She told Women’s Health she works out six days a week – but it doesn’t feel like work to her.

“I like to work out first thing in the morning. Because then I know, no matter what happens for the rest of the day, I’ve done something good for myself,” Lucci said, adding she does most of her workouts with the aid of her Pilates Pro Chair.

She said staying fit and healthy has allowed her to keep feeling – and looking – young. 

“I feel as good now as I ever did in my 20s and 30s, maybe even better physically,” she told Harper’s Bazaar in 2018. The feature on her in the magazine was accompanied by some almost unbelievable photos of the star looking her very best in a stunning plunging black swimsuit. A testament to her good looks was the media frenzy that surrounded her after paparazzi took some shots of her on vacation in St. Barts. “The reaction was very unexpected — and sooo flattering,” Lucci recalled, and added, “The pictures were so good!” she says. “By the fourth day I was looking for the paparazzi. I wanted to thank them.”

As for her diet, Lucci said she keeps it pretty logical. “Once I started doing Pilates, I lost my taste for things like cheeseburgers and french fries,” she told the publication. She added:  “I rarely eat dessert, never snack, and I don’t eat a lot of bread and pasta. … I’ll have one glass of champagne when we go out to dinner, but I don’t drink at home.”

Lucci credits her genes in part for her flawless skin at 76. "I probably do a lot of the same things that we all do. I will say that we all get a certain gene pool, and I was really lucky," she said. "Both my parents had really great skin. I just lost my mother in June (2021) — she was 104 — I was lucky to be with her when she passed away, and she didn't have a line in her face."

The star also gave some wisdom and advice for maintaining a good complexion. Lucci said:

"But I do take good care of my skin because I know I got lucky. Take it just one day at a time. If you didn't have a ton of wrinkles yesterday, you're not going to have a ton of wrinkles today. If you take care of it today, you're still going to be okay tomorrow, and you could maybe string all those days together. I think what you eat is really important, it can be very helpful, not just to your overall health but to your skin. And hydrating is really important." 

Lucci was also very honest about seeing a doctor and getting a little help from Botox. She shared: "Plus, I, and I don't make a secret of it, have a really good dermatologist. I go to her and get checked out, and there is some Botox involved, and that's a good thing. My mother was a nurse, and I know that my mother believes a lot in prevention. So I thought, gee, looking ahead, maybe I could do something to prevent (lines) from happening."

Are you a fan of Susan Lucci? Would you ever get Botox? Let us know, and be sure to send this on to your friends and loved ones that watched "All My Children."