Soap opera star Susan Lucci auctioning off items for charity

After being welcomed into viewers’ homes for 41 years as Erica Kane on the ABC television soap opera “All My Children,” actress Susan Lucci is ready to return the favor to her fans.

Through Friday, March 10, Lucci is auctioning off more than 900 personal items from her home and acting life, including designer couture pieces worn to various Daytime Emmy Award shows and galas. Also being auctioned are housewares, furniture and memorabilia. Bids start at $1.

Lucci partnered with Everything but the House, an estate sale company, for the 10-day online auction that allows users from around the world a chance to own some of her most prized possessions accumulated over her acting career.

A portion of the proceeds will benefit United Cerebral Palsy of New York, a nonprofit that assists children and adults with disabilities.

A DESIRE TO DIVEST

This divestiture was almost a decade in the making.

Lucci, a Garden City resident, says she has been looking to unload some of her belongings since “All My Children” ended in 2011, but a busy work schedule made it difficult.

“I have been traveling a great deal in the last five years shooting ‘Devious Maids,’ and before that, ‘All My Children’ had moved to Los Angeles,” says Lucci, 70. “Although I wanted to start very much to divest, to lighten up with clothing, furniture and china, I didn’t have any time.”

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Lucci starred as an emotionally unstable wealthy woman in “Devious Maids” — a comedy-drama and mystery series created by Marc Cherry and produced by Eva Longoria that aired on Lifetime for four seasons from 2013 to 2016. Once the show ended last year, Lucci was able to sort through her belongings.

But it was difficult. There are 900-plus items being auctioned, none of which were easy to part with.

“Nothing’s too easy,” Lucci says. “I am someone who just holds on to things and [I] have emotional connections and memories attached with things.”

THREE ITEMS FROM THE SALE

Miu Miu heels

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One of Lucci’s most coveted possessions is a blush pair of Miu Miu crystal heel silk satin sandals she wore in her first scene on the first episode of “Devious Maids.” In that scene, Lucci is under a bed, with only those shoes peeking out.

“It really has become an iconic scene, and it was a funny scene,” Lucci says. “And those shoes meant a lot to me.”

Dressing room sofa

Lucci says the white Crate & Barrel sofa that “witnessed a lot” in her dressing room at the New York and Los Angeles “All My Children” studios is the hardest item to part with.

“I spent so much time with that sofa and just loved it so much,” Lucci says. “I studied my lines on that sofa. Ran lines with other actors on that sofa. Took naps on that sofa lying in a Dolce & Gabbana outfit.”

Red Chanel suit

Lucci’s favorite item from the auction is a red Chanel suit designed in a wool/mohair and rayon blend with a hint of blue, yellow, red and silk brocade. Lucci purchased it in Paris while filming the last season of the prime-time soap opera “Dallas,” in which she played Sheila Foley from 1990 to ’91. The suit had bids upward of $200 on the first day of the auction.

“It was the first piece of Chanel I ever bought,” Lucci says, adding that because it was costly, she wanted a second opinion. “I asked them to hold it for me until my husband got off the golf course.”

What she recalls most fondly about that day is that it involved an encounter with her role model, Sophia Loren. The Italian film star was in the Chanel store that same morning.

“She was more beautiful than I had seen her in film,” Lucci said. “I found myself smiling from ear to ear.”