Sofía Vergara and Joe Manganiello announced their divorce last year, separating after seven years of marriage, and a decade-long relationship.
“We have made the difficult decision to divorce,” read their joint statement to Page Six in 2023. “As two people that love and care for one another very much, we politely ask for respect of our privacy at this time as we navigate this new phase of our lives.”
Sofia Vergara, 52, opened up about their divorce earlier this year in an interview with El País, claiming that the reason behind their separation was their opposing views on having children.
“I’m newly divorced from my second husband, who I was with for 10 years,” she explained. “My marriage broke up because my husband was younger. He wanted to have kids and I didn’t want to be an old mom. I feel it’s not fair to the baby. I respect whoever does it, but that’s not for me anymore.”
She continued: “I had a son at 19, who is now 32, and I’m ready to be a grandmother, not a mother. So, if love comes along, he has to come with children.”
And while Joe Manganiello has remained silent since their split, the Magic Mike actor spoke out to tell his side of the story in a cover interview this week.
In the conversation with Men’s Journal, Manganiello denied Vergara’s claims that their marriage broke down over his want for children, stating that it is “simply not true”.
“We did try to have a family for the first year and a half,” the 47-year-old explained. “And we had a huge conversation right out of the gate during the first month we dated.”
He continued: “I said, ‘If you’re done with kids, then I understand. Just tell me, and I’ll know what this is, and that’s okay.’ But that wasn’t the case with her. And I swore to her that I would never leave if it didn’t work out. And I didn’t.
“To be painted as if I had some sort of midlife crisis, and after nine years, turned to somebody and gave them an ultimatum of, ‘Do this potentially unhealthy thing to your body, or else I’m gone?’ That’s never who I was.”
Instead, Manganiello has claimed that their break up was actually “because two people grew apart, and sometimes that happens.”
We will continue to update this story.