Susan Lucci is on the mend after undergoing her second heart surgery in just four years.
The All My Children icon, now 76, made an appearance at the 75th Annual Writers Guild Awards on Sunday, where she shared an exclusive health update with PEOPLE.
“I’m doing really well,” Lucci said on the red carpet at New York City’s Edison Ballroom. “I always keep an eye on myself, what’s going on.”
Since having a stent placed in one of her arteries this past January, the beloved daytime TV star says her recovery has been smooth. “So far, so good,” she added.
Back in February, Lucci opened up to PEOPLE about her health struggles and what she hopes other women take away from her experience.
“I would hear that heart disease is the number one killer of women, but that went in one ear and out the other,” said Lucci, who now serves as an ambassador for the American Heart Association. “But now I get it.”
Lucci recalled that in October 2018, she began experiencing intense chest pressure—describing it as feeling “like an elephant pressing down”—along with pain around her rib cage. At the time, she brushed it off. Given her active lifestyle, which included regular Pilates and a mostly Mediterranean diet, heart problems simply weren’t on her radar.
“Like most women, I thought, ‘I have too much to do. It will go away.’ I didn’t want to bother the cardiologist,” she admitted. “We take care of our children, we are advocates for our loved ones, but we’re not at the top of our own to-do list.”
However, a scan later revealed a severe 90% blockage in the main artery to her heart. Looking back on the emergency surgery that followed, she acknowledged just how serious the situation had been. “I didn’t realize how close I came to a fatal heart attack,” she said. Doctors inserted a stent—a small tube designed to keep the artery open—and further testing confirmed that her condition was genetic, inherited from her father’s side of the family. She ultimately needed two stents.
Now, Lucci stresses the importance of understanding one’s family medical history. “It’s important for everyone to know their family history,” she urged. “I don’t think that I ever mentioned my dad’s family history to a doctor.”
Then, in January of last year, after indulging in plenty of “comfort food” throughout the pandemic—something she admitted was “not my normal way of eating”—Lucci faced another terrifying health scare. She started experiencing shortness of breath, followed by chest pain that spread to her jaw. Even though she had already undergone a previous procedure, she hesitated to reach out to a doctor.
“I couldn’t believe it,” she admitted. “And after telling women for three years to not be afraid to call the doctor and to put themselves on their to-do list, I reverted back to all those things.”
When she was rushed to the hospital, doctors found an 80 percent blockage in one of her arteries—this time caused by cholesterol. She was immediately taken to the cardiac catheterization lab, where another stent was inserted to reopen the artery.
“I almost wasn’t going to speak about it, I was so ashamed of myself. But it’s a reminder to be vigilant,” Lucci told PEOPLE.
Just two months after her last surgery, Lucci faced an unimaginable loss—her husband of 53 years, Helmut Huber, passed away at the age of 84.
“After that, nothing seemed important, my health or anything else,” Lucci confessed. “I didn’t care about anything else.”
She described the healing process as “a journey, a process.” But despite the heartbreak, she shared, “I feel good. I lost the love of my life, and that’s been awful, but I have friends who make me laugh and keep me out and about, and I’m determined to keep putting one foot in front of the other.”
