Susan Lucci's Over-50-Year Marriage Almost Didn't Happen

Life was somewhat of a fairy tale for Susan Lucci and her late husband, Helmut Huber, an Austrian-born chef, television producer, and manager. The couple, who spent 52 years together before Huber died to a stroke in 2022, met once, didn't fall in love initially, and might never have united had destiny not brought them back into each other's lives later.  

Lucci rose to fame after landing the role of Erica Kane on the ABC series "All My Children," which premiered in 1970. She played the trend-setting style icon, who we let influence our wardrobes, for over 41 years, leading to 21 Emmy nominations. But before she was a soap opera star, 18-year-old Lucci worked as a waitress at Long Island's Garden City Hotel in 1965.  

Lucci met and was instantly attracted to Huber, the restaurant's executive chef. Though Huber made an impression, the prospect of connecting with him still seemed impossible to Lucci due to her hesitancy about age-gap relationships, which have the potential for power imbalances. There were nine years between them, and a coworker had warned her that the handsome man was her boss, so Lucci dismissed him as a potential romantic interest and moved forward with her love life. Three years later, she accepted a proposal to another man while attending Marymount College, Tarrytown in 1968, but fate quickly came knocking.

Susan Lucci's engagement didn't last long before she risked it all to be with the love of her life, Helmut Huber. As fate would have it, Lucci's parents threw her 1968 engagement party at the same Long Island hotel where Lucci and Huber had initially met three years prior. Lucci's mother even encouraged Huber, who was apparently disapproving of the couple's match, to attend. 

According to Yahoo Life, Huber told her mother, "She needs a man, not a boy," and that's all it took for Lucci to call off her engagement and start pursuing Huber. Within three months, Huber and Lucci went from dating to being true partners who were ready to get engaged, and the rest was history.

Lucci and Huber shared a fairytale love that lasted over five decades. During this time, the pair had two children together: Liza Huber, born in 1975, and Andreas Huber, born in 1980. Naturally, Lucci is still reeling from the loss of her great love. After coming on stage to honor stars and members who had died in 2022 at the Daytime Emmy Awards, Lucci said she "would not give up even one second of the love" she shared with Huber (via Today). She also told People in a 2026 interview, "I just miss him, miss his presence, miss sharing things together, like coffee in the morning."