Stanley Tucci is passionate about acting, food and his family. After amusing fans with his cocktail-making skills during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, many began to wonder who he was making the Negronis for. As it turns out, the Searching for Italy host and Worth actor was whipping them up for his wife, Felicity Blunt, who had the original idea to share his mixology talent with the world.
Stanley and Felicity's story is one of finding love again after loss. In 1995, Stanley married his first wife, Kathryn 'Kate' Tucci. During their 14-year marriage, the couple had three children: fraternal twins Nicolo and Isabel and daughter Camila. Kate was diagnosed with breast cancer right as Stanley was about to start filming the 2006 dramedy The Devil Wears Prada. She received treatment while Stanley worked on the movie and later accompanied him to the premiere.
On the red carpet, Stanley and Kathryn bumped into Devil Wears Prada costar Emily Blunt and her older sister Felicity.
'That's where I met Emily and we became friends. And actually, Felicity—Emily's sister, my wife,' Stanley said on the WTF With Marc Maron Podcast in February 2021. 'She and Kate talked at the premiere that night, and I have a photo of them together.'
In 2009, Kate died of breast cancer at age 47. A year later, Stanley opened up to NPR about losing his longtime partner. 'There's all the blaming of yourself, which you can't do, but you kind of do,' he told the outlet. 'And I'm just—I'm mostly sad.'
It was around this time that the New York native reconnected with Felicity at Emily’s wedding to The Office actor John Krasinski. Emily and John wed on July 10, 2010 in an intimate ceremony at George Clooney's house in Lake Como, Italy. 'After Kate died, I saw her at her sister Emily’s wedding,' Stanley told The Guardian in 2017.
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.
'I was going to London to shoot a film immediately, so I said, "Well, let’s get together,”' he said at a 2015 event. '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. Stanley and Felicity started dating shortly after.
The Hunger Games 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 host Queen Latifah.
Since 2005, Felicity has worked as a literary agent at the talent agency Curtis Brown. She represents fiction writers like New York Times best-selling author Elizabeth Acevedo and renowned novelist Danielle Steel.
Stanley proposed to Felicity in November 2011 while on a trip to Berlin. He later opened up to U.K. paper The Times about '[panicking] instantly afterwards' and '[feeling] guilty' thinking about his late wife.
By the following summer, in August 2012, the duo confirmed that they had secretly gotten married. Later that fall, in September, they had a formal wedding at Middle Temple Hall in London, and Emily was a bridesmaid. Stanley and Felicity had their reception at L’Anima restaurant, the location of their first outing together with that cheese cart.
Thankfully, Stanley didn’t let fear hold him back from falling in love again. Today, he 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 to The Guardian. '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 more children: son Matteo Oliver and daughter Emilia Giovanna. At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the father of five detailed what it was like quarantining with his entire family in a piece for The Atlantic.
'We can’t help but think how lucky we are to have one another, a roof over our heads, food in our bellies.'
Selena is the entertainment and news editor for Good Housekeeping, where she covers the latest on TV, movies and celebrities. In addition to writing and editing entertainment news, she also spotlights the Hispanic and Latinx community through her work. She is a graduate of CUNY Hunter College with a B.A. in journalism and creative writing.
