Why Susan Lucci's Daughter Decided to Come Forward About Her Son's Cerebral Palsy

"It's really a journey to get to where we are today"

While Susan Lucci was competing on Dancing with the Stars in 2008, she was also starring on daytime soap All My Children – and spending as much time as she could in the hospital with her daughter, Liza, and newborn grandson, who was in the fight of his life.

Until now, Lucci has never let on about the behind-the-scenes drama that was happening at home: Liza Huber‘s son, Brendan, was born nine weeks early and spent the first six weeks of his life in neo-natal intensive care.

At 2 years old, Brendan was diagnosed with cerebral palsy.

Now that he is 7, his mom and his glamorous grandmother want to celebrate his courage and share his inspiring story. They recently sat down with PEOPLE NOW.

Susan Lucci and Ana Ortiz Charm Us in PEOPLE’s Co-star Challenge

“It’s really a journey to get to where we are today,” Huber told PEOPLE. “I mean it’s something I’ve been wanting to talk about for a long time, but I never knew when the time was right.”

It’s true, Lucci told PEOPLE, that she was glad to be voted off DWTS. But all of the travel was worth it.

“It was a lot of flying, but I could do it,” she said, adding, “You just do what you have to do.”

For more revelations from Susan Lucci, pick up this week’s issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands now