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Susan Lucci (L), seen here co-hosting “Good Day New York” with Rosanna Scotto on February 16, 2026, is the national ambassador for the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women. (Photo by Michael Simon\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Getty Images<\/p>\n
For over 41 years, Emmy-award winning actress Susan Lucci played Erica Kane on the ABC daytime soap opera All My Children. Kane was a fan favorite heroine-villain female fictional character who may have appeared heartless on the show at times. But now Lucci has some heart-filled real-life warnings for all women based on her personal experience with heart disease\u2014which she discussed in a recent conversation with me. <\/p>\n
The whole experience inspired Lucci to put her heart into serving as the national ambassador for the American Heart Association\u2019s \u201cGo Red For Women\u201d<\/a> campaign. And a big part of this \u201cRed\u201d campaign is to get everyone more well-read about the number one killer of women. Yes, as the AHA emphasizes<\/a>, cardiovascular disease claims the lives of one in three women\u2014more than all forms of cancer combined. Yet, only 44% of women realize that it is the leading cause of premature death among them. <\/p>\n Lucci\u2019s Heart Disease Symptoms Began With Chest Pressure<\/p>\n When Lucci\u2014who is currently 79 years of age\u2014began recounting to me her first signs of heart disease, you could say that there was something she wanted to get off her chest. \u201cIn 2018, it was October, my husband and I were being led to our table at a restaurant, and I started to feel just a very, very slight pressure on my chest,\u201d Lucci recalled. \u201cI had never had any health issues at all, so I didn\u2019t think anything of it and thought it\u2019ll go away. By the time we were seated, it had gone away.\u201d <\/p>\n That restaurant experience may have given her a little food for thought. But she didn\u2019t really do anything until she experienced the symptoms again. \u201cThis happened to me one more time, similar thing at a restaurant a couple weeks later,” Lucci said. “But a week after that, I was at a boutique shopping for a birthday present for a good friend, and as the woman stepped away to take it back, to have it wrapped, I felt what I could not ignore anymore, like I had an elephant pressing on my chest.\u201d <\/p>\n This elephant in the room, so to speak, became a little too much to ignore. \u201cSo I sat down on a bench to figure out what was going on,\u201d she recounted. \u201cThe manager came up behind me, who I\u2019d known for a long time, and asked me how I was, and I told her I was just trying to assess this.\u201d When Lucci told the manager about the elephant feeling, the manager said that she could drive Lucci to St. Francis Hospital in Long Island, New York, which was only about a mile away.<\/p>\n Lucci Went To The Hospital And Got Some Surprise Findings <\/p>\n Susan Lucci (L) is pictured here with her husband Helmut Huber, who unfortunately passed away at age 84 in 2022. (Photo: LA LUCCI – Susan Lucci)<\/p>\n LA LUCCI – Susan Lucci <\/p>\n \u201cMy husband had afib, so I called his doctor as I didn\u2019t have a cardiologist and had no need for one,\u201d Lucci said. \u201cI told him what was going on, and he said, \u2018I want you to come into the ER because your, your syndrome are substantial so I\u2019ll meet you there.\u2019 And when I met him, I was thinking, \u2019I can\u2019t do this today. This is my day off, and I\u2019ve way too much to do. I don\u2019t want to take him away from patients who really need him.\u2019” <\/p>\n While she had some discomfort in \u201cbothering\u201d the doctor, her chest discomfort did go away by the time she had reached the emergency room. \u201cBut the doctor tested me, gave me a CT scan, and much to everyone\u2019s surprise, came back and told me that I had a 90% blockage in my main artery and a 75% blockage in the other artery,\u201d Lucci explained. \u201cSo the doctor said, ‘Don\u2019t worry, I can fix it. We\u2019ll take you up to the OR.\u201d <\/p>\n It was already getting late at night so Lucci wondered whether she should go home and get a good night\u2019s sleep before going through the procedure. \u201cHe said, \u2018No, I don\u2019t think you understand. You can have a heart attack at any time,\u2019\u201d she recalled. \u201cSo he took me up to the OR and had a heart surgeon standing by as well just in case they found something more.” <\/p>\n The Cardiologist Put Two Stents In Lucci\u2019s Coronary Arteries<\/p>\n The cardiologist ended up putting two stents in the blocked coronary arteries. Coronary arteries are the blood vessels that supply blood and oxygen to much of the muscle in the heart. A coronary stent is a very small mesh-like metal tube that the doctor can insert into a coronary artery that\u2019s either narrowed or completely blocked in order to keep the blood flowing through that vessel.<\/p>\n With this procedure, Lucci managed to avoid what the cardiologist called the \u201cWidowmaker.\u201d That soap opera-ish sounding nickname is used to describe the often deadly heart attacks that result from your left anterior descending coronary artery getting completely blocked. The LAD supplies blood to around half of your left ventricle, which is the biggest chamber in your heart that\u2019s responsible for pumping blood to the rest of your body. Knock out your LV and your whole body is in a lot of el trouble. With her coronary blood flow restored, though, Lucci got discharged from the hospital by noon the next day. <\/p>\n The Experience Motivated Lucci To Bring More Awareness To Heart Disease In Women<\/p>\n Susan Lucci (L) is pictured here with All My Children castmates. (Photo: LA LUCCI – Susan Lucci) <\/p>\n LA LUCCI – Susan Lucci <\/p>\n In her car ride home, Lucci told her husband, Helmut Huber (who unfortunately passed away at age 84 in 2022), \u201c\u2019Honey, I cannot just keep this good luck for myself.\u2019 I have very specific, good luck, my granddad on one shoulder as a guardian angel, my grandmother on the other, and the manager of the boutique, it turned out, had a degree in nursing. I mean, what are the odds?\u201d Lucci felt, “I could not pass on my particular good luck and could pass on the takeaway.\u201d <\/p>\n At the same time, Lucci recalled seeing an interview where a woman had emphasized how a woman\u2019s symptoms of heart disease are often different than a man\u2019s and mentioned the type of chest pressure that Lucci experienced as a possibility. Lucci said, \u201cThank God, this woman\u2019s interview has saved my life, and I just thought, if I just tell this story now maybe even one woman might hear what I heard. Maybe it’ll save hers.\u201d <\/p>\n Indeed, the symptoms of coronary artery disease that women experience may be much more subtle than the classic crushing chest pain that men frequently describe. Symptoms can range from pain in different parts of the body like the jaw, neck, upper back and shoulder to things that don\u2019t even seem like heart disease like fatigue, nausea, vomiting, dizziness or cold sweats. Lucci went on to say, \u201cSo I called my publicist from the car. I wasn\u2019t even home yet because it just had to pass it forward. I was on world news tonight and good morning America and right away the American Heart Association helps me get the message out.\u201d In the ensuing year, she became a national ambassador for the AHA. <\/p>\n Lucci Didn\u2019t Have Obvious Risk Factors For Heart Disease<\/p>\n Now, Lucci didn\u2019t quite match what you may think is the stereotype of someone with heart disease. It\u2019s not as if she was wolfing down ultra-processed or fat-filled fast food and couch surfing all day. Instead, she maintained a healthy diet<\/a> of stuff like salmon, kale and blueberries. She remained physically active, doing Pilates<\/a> nearly every day. And she would get regular check-ups with her doctor. This is a reminder that just because you don\u2019t have the traditional risk factors for heart disease doesn\u2019t mean that you can\u2019t have it. <\/p>\n Retrospectively, though, a deeper dive into her family history did reveal something. \u201cWe thought I had never had any health issues and that I really had all my mother\u2019s genes,\u201d Lucci told me. \u201cBut it turned out that for me the blockage was due to calcium, which I inherited from my otherwise fabulous dad.\u201d This raised another issue that Lucci wants people to be familiar with, namely their families: \u201cI think it\u2019s pretty normal for people in general to identify their health history with their same sex parent. But in my case, it came from my dad and I think it\u2019s important to tell both sides of the family history.\u201d<\/p>\n Susan Lucci (C) is pictured here with her parents. (Photo: LA LUCCI – Susan Lucci)<\/p>\n LA LUCCI – Susan LucciLucci Went Through A Similar Experience Again<\/p>\n So, Lucci had gotten to the heart of the matter, was more aware of heart disease and was spreading that awareness to to others. No chance of the same kind of thing happening again, right? Not exactly. Three years later, and it was some d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu all over again. <\/p>\n \u201cOne night my husband was out playing cards, and I was home and felt similar symptoms, which I couldn\u2019t believe,\u201d Lucci recalled. \u201cSo, of course, I said exactly the things that I\u2019ve told women not to do. I started to tell myself, \u2018Oh, it\u2019ll go away.\u2019” When her husband returned home about a half hour later, Lucci didn\u2019t even tell him and instead, \u201cwent upstairs, got ready for bed, and then I started to feel pain up my jaw, my left jaw, and I had heard that that was also a symptom for women having a heart event.\u201d At first, she discounted it as a toothache. But it was far from the tooth. When she did tell her husband, they ended up calling the doctor. <\/p>\n Once again, Lucci didn\u2019t want to \u201cbother the doctor at this time. All the things I have been telling women not to do,\u201d in her words. Her husband did drive her to the hospital, and there the doctor found another blockage of a coronary artery, requiring another stent to be placed. Lucci lamented, \u201cI was so ashamed of my behavior, having been a spokesperson for an advocate for women\u2019s heart health and telling them, \u2018Don\u2019t be afraid to call the doctor.\u2019\u201d But rather than slink away in shame, Lucci has since doubled down in her efforts to raise awareness with the “Go Red for Women” campaign. <\/p>\n Speaking of \u201cred\u201d or perhaps \u201cread,\u201d if you\u2019ve already read Lucci\u2019s just published new memoir La Lucci that she wrote with Laura Morton, you\u2019ll find that she gets to the heart of the matter there too. This book is a follow-up to her 2011 New York Times bestseller autobiography entitled All My Life. This new book didn\u2019t just raise Kane\u2014as in her character Erica Cane. It included more details of her life such two chapters in the book about the aforementioned heart-felt experiences. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Susan Lucci (L), seen here co-hosting “Good Day New York” with Rosanna Scotto on February 16, 2026, is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[87013,163577,10563,6294,41273,167707,167708,134,5457,167709,111,139,69,152367],"class_list":{"0":"post-306860","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-aha","9":"tag-all-my-children","10":"tag-american-heart-association","11":"tag-cardiovascular-disease","12":"tag-coronary-artery-disease","13":"tag-erica-kane","14":"tag-go-red-for-women","15":"tag-health","16":"tag-heart-disease","17":"tag-la-lucci","18":"tag-new-zealand","19":"tag-newzealand","20":"tag-nz","21":"tag-susan-lucci"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}