Stanley Tucci recently talked about his previous diagnosis and triumph over cancer that happened three years ago, having battled it in secret.  In an interview with Vera magazine, the Supernova actor was diagnosed by doctors with a tumor at the base of his tongue that was too big to operate on, giving him no choice but to undergo high-dose radiation and chemo to remove it.

The Oscar nominee, after having lost his first wife, Kate Spath-Tucci, to breast cancer in 2009, hoped that he would never have to experience the same treatments she had to endure, stating, “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.”

Tucci shared the challenges of the treatment, especially about how it would affect his family, twins Nicolo and Isabel and daughter Camilla whom he shared with Kate and two children, Matteo and Emilia with his current wife Felicity Blunt.

“The kids were great, but it was hard for them. I had a feeding tube for six months. I could barely make it to the twins’ high school graduation.”

“[Cancer] makes you more afraid and less afraid at the same time,” he confessed, stating that though the cancer is unlikely to return, its effects will always stay with him. “I feel much older than I did before I was sick. But you still want to get ahead and get things done.”