Lifestyle

'IT WASN'T MY TIME'

‘Sopranos’ Star, 67, Reveals Near-Fatal Heart Attack

“It was a nightmare.”

Cailey PetschHealth and Beauty Intern

PublishedJun 3, 2026, 12:38 PM EDT

UpdatedJun 3, 2026, 12:38 PM EDT

Updated Jun 3, 2026, 12:38 PM EDTPublished Jun 3, 2026, 12:38 PM EDT

Comments

Sopranos star Aida Turturro, 67, revealed the terrifying health incident that ultimately changed her outlook on life during a conversation with Jamie-Lynn Sigler.

The actress, the cousin of Emmy winner John Turturro, is known for her role as Janice Soprano, the oft-despised sister of Tony Soprano (portrayed by the late James Gandolfini), in HBO’s revolutionary television series.

​In the June 2 episode of the podcast Messy, Turturro shared details about her heart attack experience with hosts and actresses Christina Applegate, 54, and Sigler, 45.

Initially, she mistook her symptoms for something less severe, only realizing the seriousness later.

​Talking with her former co-star, who played Janice’s niece Meadow Soprano, Turturro admitted the heart attack caught her by surprise.

“Eight years ago I had a big heart thing,” ​the Emmy-nominated actress told Sigler, “and it probably had to do with the diabetes, you know, but I was under a lot of stress.”

The relationship between Turturro’s Janice and Gandolfini’s Tony is one of the most volatile and memorable in the mob drama, which ran from 1999 to 2007.

Gandolfini died at 51 on June 19, 2013, after suffering a sudden heart attack in Rome, Italy.

Turturro, who has rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes, explained how caring for her mother and other stresses may have affected her heart.

“Now I’m bionic, and I’ve always been bionic,” she said, possibly referring to an artificial heart device, which takes over the task of pumping blood.

She continued, “I could have died, but I was lucky. It wasn’t my time, and because nobody says that women have heart things.”

​Her frustration with a lack of information was apparent. “Nobody says anything about women. They don’t tell you to work out at 30-something because you’re losing your muscle. They forget to tell you that because it’s about the men. They forget to say that the symptoms for a woman in the heart world are different,” she said.

​Turturro chuckled when Sigler asked her what the symptoms of her heart attack were.

“Oh, my God. It was a f---ing nightmare; it was crazy,” she added, “ 2 years before I thought I was having something. Turns out, I wasn’t having a heart attack; I don’t know. They said maybe it’s a hiatal hernia. I was having chest pains, and a hiatal hernia can imitate it.”

Two years after the possible hernia diagnosis, Turturro was still having chest pains, but continuing to tell herself she was fine.

“At one point, it was really bothering, so this is what happened. I go up Island to see a friend, and then I come back, and I’m literally on my friend’s floor with pain in my heart, and I have to drive back two hours in the rain to Montauk with the dog,” she said.

​When her friend insisted on calling an ambulance, she told her she was fine. “I get in the car, I walk to my house, my friend was staying there, I walk in, and he’s like, ‘Boy, you don’t look so good.’ I was like, yeah, I don’t feel so good.”

​That Monday, she visited her cousin’s doctor, who referred her to a cardiologist. After tests the next day, her condition was confirmed as a heart attack.

She was then informed that all four arteries were 88 to 90 percent clogged, leading to a quadruple bypass surgery.

​Turturro said, “I could have died; I should have died then, but I didn’t. And I’m fine.”

​The actress joked that she “was organizing the linen closet” just a week later.

“It’s all in your brain, and I learned my lessons; you have to take care of yourself,” Turturro said. “We can always do better, but it’s really about… don’t do nothing, don’t wait and wait and wait.”

​When asked if she felt healthier now, Turturro said, “I feel healthier. Not that I’m doing a million things, and I’m not perfect with food—no way. I love sugar.” She added, “That doesn’t mean I eat it all day, but if you give me cake, I’ll eat it.”

​She stressed that she believes life is about “balance and moderation.”

Play Video

Cailey PetschHealth and Beauty Intern

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast.