Joe Manganiello is opening up about his seven-year health battle, which allegedly took a toll on his marriage to now-ex Sofia Vergara.
“I can’t believe I’m alive,” Manganiello, 49, told People in an interview published Wednesday, October 7. “[Autoimmune] conditions are a dumping ground for things [doctors] don’t understand.”
Manganiello revealed that he first began experiencing symptoms shortly after his 2015 wedding to Vergara, now 54. The actor underwent multiple colonoscopies and had emergency surgery to remove part of his intestines. He never received a formal diagnosis.
The True Blood alum further discusses his health battle in his upcoming memoir, Bloodlines, including Vergara’s alleged reaction to his illness.
According to People, Manganiello writes their marriage had “become devoid of any emotionality whatsoever” and alleges Vergara refused to hug him when he begged for an embrace. He also claims the former Modern Family actress ridiculed him for adopting his sick five-pound chihuahua, Bubbles, in 2019.
“I had to give my gun away because I kept thinking about it, and then the dog came,” he says, claiming that he adopted Bubbles while struggling with suicidal ideation. “I went from being the patient to the caretaker.”
Vergara, who settled her divorce from Manganiello in April 2024, has not publicly addressed his book accusations. Us reached out for comment.
Vergara has previously been outspoken about the dissolution of their marriage, claiming she and Manganiello ultimately didn’t work out because they disagreed about having kids.
“My marriage broke up because my husband was younger,” she told El País in January 2024. “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. I had a son at 19 … and I’m ready to be a grandmother, not a mother.”
Vergara shares son Manolo, 35, with ex Joe Gonzalez. She expressed her hopes for the future at the time.
“If love comes along, he has to come with [his own] children. I’m almost in menopause, it’s the natural way of things,” she noted. “When my son becomes a dad, let him bring the baby to me for a while and then I’ll give it back to him and go on with my life. That’s what I have to do.”
Manganiello, who filed for divorce from Vergara in 2023, has refuted his ex’s claims that they split over family plans.
“There were things said and printed about me that were false,” he claimed to People on Wednesday, noting that he is still open to having children. “If that’s meant for me. For seven years, I thought I was going to be dead the next week. The world has opened back up to me.”
Manganiello, who proposed to fiancée Caitlin O’Connor in 2025, is now symptom-free and no longer taking medications to treat his illness.
Bloodlines will be available Tuesday, October 13.
