Make Page Six a Preferred Source Joe Manganiello claims that his ex-wife, Sofía Vergara, allegedly mistreated him when he was fighting a near-fatal autoimmune disease during their marriage.
In his upcoming memoir, “Bloodlines,” Manganiello writes about how Vergara “ridiculed” him for his 5-pound dog named Bubbles, whom Manganiello adopted in 2019 when he was considering suicide, according to People’s excepts.
“I had to give my gun away because I kept thinking about it, and then the dog came,” the “True Blood” actor says. “I went from being the patient to the caretaker.”
Manganiello, 49, also claims in his book that Vergara, 54, refused to hug him, even when he begged, when he was severely sick.
Additionally, the “Magic Mike” star says that despite Vergara’s claims that his desire to have kids caused their split, since she “didn’t want to be an old mom,” he actually gave up that idea because of his illness.
Manganiello explains that after failed IFV attempts, the pair began considering egg donors. But because of his health issues, Manganiello says he didn’t want to die and leave his then-wife with a kid “who wasn’t biologically hers.”
He says writing his book was his way of setting that record straight.
“There were things said and printed about me that were false.”
Page Six has reached out to Vergara’s rep for comment.
In 2024, Vergara alleged that the former couple’s disagreement about having a family together led to their divorce.
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“My marriage broke up because my husband was younger; he wanted to have kids, and I didn’t want to be an old mom,” she said at the time, adding, “I feel it’s not fair to the baby.”
Vergara — who shares son Manolo Gonzalez Vergara, 34, with her first husband, Joe Gonzalez — also admitted that having kids was “not for [her] anymore.”
In his interview with People, Manganiello said his health issues began shortly after his and Vergara’s 2015 wedding.
His initial symptoms included excruciating abdominal pain that left him unable to walk, he recalled, as well as blistering rashes, headaches, fatigue and bleeding from his rectum.
“I was getting sicker and sicker,” he said.
Over the next seven years, Manganiello said he lost 60 pounds, underwent multiple colonoscopies, and had an emergency surgery in 2016 where part of his intestines were removed. That forced him to rely on an ostomy bag to go to the bathroom.
“It happened to me, and it’s the truth, and I have all the scars to prove it,” Manganiello told the outlet.
Manganiello said that after medicine kept failing him, he eventually got healthy by visiting a Santa Monica shaman, who insisted his generational trauma — including losing his ancestors to genocide in Armenia, and his grandmother’s lupus battle — was to blame for his health issues.
The “Spider-Man” star said he’s now symptom-free and off medication after undergoing a follow-up surgery that reconnected his digestive tract.
But more importantly, Manganiello said he’s grateful for the support from his fiancée, Caitlin O’Connor, revealing the couple are considering having kids together.
“If that’s meant for me,” he shared. “For seven years I thought I was going to be dead the next week. The world has opened back up to me.”
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