On “The Sopranos,” James Gandolfini played it tough as mob boss Tony Soprano. But since his untimely death in 2013, more and more stories have surfaced that prove what a teddy bear he was behind the scenes.
And today comes more such heart-warming evidence.
Jamie-Lynn Sigler played his on-screen daughter Meadow Soprano from 1999 to 2007, and her scenes with Gandolfini could be sweet, but were often contentious -- a classic teen-vs-parents scenario.
Backstage though, Gandolfini showed Sigler full support during a tough time in her life.
According to Insider, in 2005 Sigler was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, a degenerative nerve disease. And not only that, but she was already going through a divorce from her first husband, AJ DiScala.
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"There was a time in the maybe fourth or fifth season,” said Sigler, “where I was dealing with my divorce privately, and my diagnosis of MS, and a lot of other stuff that I wasn't talking to people about, and he really stepped up."
Gandolfini proved his fathering tendencies stretched further than his role on the show. "He sent his acting coach, Susan Aston, to work with me,” Sigler recalled, “just to make sure I was taken care of. Little things like that, that he really just stepped up in amazing ways."
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Sigler kept her ailment private until 2020. Her comments about Gandolfini's help come from the new "Sopranos" oral history book, Woke Up This Morning, by co-stars Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa.
Sigler has since remarried last year to professional baseball player Cutter Dykstra, and most recently starred as Tonya in the ABC mystery-drama, “Big Sky.”
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