Watch: Why Joe Manganiello and Sofía Vergara’s Marriage Fell Apart: What They Said About Their Divorce
Joe Manganiello once had to refuse a “generous offer.”
The True Blood actor revealed in his new memoir Bloodlines that an unnamed friend offered to abduct his ex-wife Sofía Vergara’s ex-boyfriend Nick Loeb after Loeb took legal action against Vergara for custody of the embryos they’d had frozen during their relationship.
“At one point a very close friend of mine who happens to have top level contacts in the private security world offered me the opportunity, no questions asked, to have this guy snatched off the street, blindfolded, hog-tied, thrown in the back of a van, and driven deep into a wooded area,” Manganiello wrote in the book, “where he would first be warned, then beaten within an inch of his life, and left to fend for himself in the wild.”
According to the 49-year-old, the “protective part of me did not dismiss the offer right away,” but ultimately he decided against it, writing, “After thinking it through, the spiritual part of me won out, fearing karmic retribution either in this life in the form of prison, or something worse in the next.”
“I said, ‘Thank you, but no thank you,’ to that generous offer,” he recalled, “and informed Sofía that if we ever saw that asshole in public, we’d have to get up and leave. There would be no discussion, just our exit, because I didn’t know if I’d be able to hold back from smashing his face in.”
Vergara dated Loeb from 2010 to 2014, with the businessman suing the Modern Family alum in 2016 with a right-to-live lawsuit in Louisiana, although the case was dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction, according to court records obtained by E! News at the time.
E! News has reached out to Loeb’s reps for comment but has not heard back.
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As for Manganiello and Vergara—who married in 2015 and split in 2023—the Magic Mikealum was candid about the couple’s relationship in his memoir, explaining that his seven-year battle with a mysterious autoimmune disease resulted in their marriage becoming “devoid of any emotionality whatsoever.”
And while Vergara has not spoken publicly regarding the claim, she did share a pair of cryptic posts on social media.
The 54-year-old first reshared a post by her son Manolo Vergara, 35—who she welcomed withex Joe Gonzalez—comparing a “good man” to “a narcissistic man” to her Instagram Stories Oct. 9.
“Remember kids,” her son wrote on top of the graphic, “when dealing with a narcissist, it doesn’t matter how much you do for them, because they will resent you for it, and nothing will ever be enough and they’ll always somehow try to paint you as the bad guy.”
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She also reposted a quote originally shared by Tom Brady that said “the ability to laugh at oneself is probably the highest form of intelligence” and that “the inability to laugh at oneself is a sure sign you’re dealing with an idiot.”
However, Manganiello—who is now engaged to Caitlin O’Connor—wasn’t concerned by Vergara’s posts, saying on CBS Mornings Oct. 12, “I think anybody who said that should read the book first and understand what the book is actually about because it’s not about that. It’s about the suffering I went through.”
For a look back at Manganiello and Vergara’s time together, keep reading.
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Instagram / Sofia Vergara
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Instagram / Sofia Vergara
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