Exclusive Interview
Susan Lucci Reveals Her Favorite Erica Kane Wedding Dress on ‘All My Children’
What To Know
- Susan Lucci reflects on her iconic All My Children character Erica Kane’s quest for love, which led to 10 dramatic marriages on the show.
- Looking back on Erica’s love life, Lucci reveals her favorite Erica Kane wedding dress.
In her new book, La Lucci, out now, the legendary Susan Lucci (Erica Kane, All My Children) reflects on life after the loss of Helmut Huber, her beloved husband of 53 years. While Lucci’s real-life love story was the picture of stability, her Pine Valley alter ego’s romantic life was anything but.
“Erica really just wanted boyfriends and men in her life,” reflects Lucci. “That’s another thing I think that people could identify with, searching for that love, wanting to have that love in their lives. Some characters were in search of power. I know Erica was powerful, but that was not the thing she was searching for. She wanted love.”
That search played out dramatically over the course of the show’s run. When AMC went off the air in 2011, Erica had racked up 10 marriages, earning her the famously lengthy name: Erica Kane Martin Brent Cudahy Chandler Montgomery Montgomery Chandler Marick Marick Montgomery. Those unions included her saying, “I do” to Jeff Martin (Charles Frank), Phil Brent (Nick Benedict), Tom Cudahy (Richard Shoberg), Adam Chandler (David Canary), Travis Montgomery (Larkin Malloy — twice), Adam again, Dimitri Marick (Michael Nader — twice) and Jackson Montgomery (Walt Willey), plus a wedding to Mike Roy (Nicolas Surovy) that was ultimately deemed invalid.
Erica’s multiple trips down the aisle also produced some of the show’s most memorable bridal looks, and Lucci does have a favorite. “There were so many, as you know,” she says. “I don’t know why I never thought about that before, but as you’re saying it, I’m remembering the wedding with Dimitri. That was all very ceremonial — the Greek wedding full of pageantry — so I would think that one.”
ABC / Everett Collection
Identifying the love of Erica’s life, however, is a more complicated question. “I think she was always in search of that,” points out Lucci. “I think there were some that could have been, but I don’t know. Jack, she loved him, but she left him several times, too.”
Beyond romance, Erica was also known for her glamorous career as a model and her enviable wardrobe, something that spilled over into Lucci’s own sense of style. “I always loved what our costume designer would put me in,” she praises. “Erica and I had very similar taste, but Erica would wear a Dolce [& Gabbana] cocktail dress around the house or on a plane, and I would wear it to a cocktail party. That was the difference.”
