It may have been seven years since Susan Lucci last played Erica Kane on All My Children after a 40+ year run, but judging from recent paparazzi photos of the star, she’s still the same showstopping diva she’s always been.
The 71-year-old Queen of Daytime was spotted on vacation in Barbados with her husband of 49 years, Helmut Huber, wearing a strapless red swimsuit which she accessorized with very glam accessories. She wore her hair long and loose and threw on large hoop earrings and oversize sunglasses as she walked along the beach.
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And when it was time to leave, she had an equally-chic cover-up look, wearing a colorful sarong, gold flip flops with a tiny kitten heel and a luxe baguette bag.
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When PEOPLE caught up with the star last year, she credited her agelessness to good genes. “A lot of it is you just take care,” Lucci told PEOPLE at the T.J. Martell Foundation Women of Influence luncheon. “I was very lucky; both of my parents had really nice skin. My mother still does, she looks fantastic.”
And she had some age-old advice for the less genetically-blessed. “Take care of every day,” she said. “If your skin looks okay today and you take care of it, there’s a good chance it’s going to look good tomorrow.”
She also revealed that the secret to her long and happy marriage is a bit like her approach to skincare. “I think it’s like taking care of your skin; I think you just do a little bit every day,” she said. “You do something good every day and you remember every day why you fell in love. You don’t lose track of that and tell him.”
She added that she “got lucky” in finding Huber. “I married young, I had an instinct that this man was going to really wear well and he has,” she said. “For me, this is what worked. I always admired Helmut because he was A, very smart, B, very sure of himself and very, very funny and so that combination of things. My husband is European, he’s Austrian and so to my young eyes he was very worldly and experienced, there’s 10 years between us. It all turned out to be true. And he still makes me laugh, lucky me.”