Susan Lucci says son Andreas nearly died of pneumonia 36 hours after his 1980 birth

Susan Lucci, 79, writes in her new memoir La Lucci that her son Andreas suffered a life-threatening bout of pneumonia just 36 hours after he was born in 1980.

Lucci says the experience was “hugely impactful” and that she was grateful to the doctors and nurses who cared for her son. She wrote a fan letter to the NICU staff, praising the way they cared for not only Andreas but the other babies.

She recalls walking into Winthrop Hospital (now NYU Langone Hospital) in Mineola one morning at 5:30 a.m. to find a nurse rocking Andreas, with his feet peeking out of swaddling and crocheted cowboy boots on. Lucci says the nurse was singing “Here Comes Peter Cottontail” and calls those NICU nurses “so giving and so loving.”

Lucci writes about the lasting bond with her son — now 45 — and about grieving her husband of 52 years, Helmut Huber, who died at 84 in 2022 one month after a stroke. Andreas flew in to be with her when she received a lifetime achievement Daytime Emmy in 2023; Lucci said he “was spectacular” through the night. Lucci, a 21-time nominee, won a best-actress Emmy in 1999 on her 19th nomination.

La Lucci is being released by Blackstone Publishing on Feb. 3 and is currently available for preorder, the memoir's publisher and Lucci's PEOPLE cover story note.

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