Joe Manganiello’s Book Says Sofía Vergara Refused to Hug Him During Illness
In Bloodlines, out Oct. 13, he says a seven-year illness, not a wish for kids, ended their plans for a family. What she has said, and what the book covers.
- In his memoir, Bloodlines, Joe Manganiello writes that Sofía Vergara refused to hug him, even when he asked, during the years he was seriously ill.
- He says his illness, not a wish for children, is what ended their plans for a family, and that they had tried IVF.
- Vergara has said the marriage ended because he wanted kids and she did not. Her reps have not responded. The book comes out Tuesday, Oct. 13.
Joe Manganiello is giving his side of his divorce from Sofía Vergara, and it starts with an illness he kept private for seven years. In Bloodlines, out Tuesday, Oct. 13, the actor, 49, writes that his marriage became “devoid of any emotionality whatsoever” while he was sick.
The claims come from excerpts and an interview Manganiello gave to People on Oct. 7. He said he wrote the book to correct the record: “There were things said and printed about me that were false.”
What does Joe Manganiello say about Sofía Vergara in his book?
Three things. First, he writes that Vergara, 54, would not hug him when he was at his sickest, even when he asked her to.
Second, he says she made fun of his dog, Bubbles, a 5-pound Chihuahua he adopted in 2019, at a time when he says he was having suicidal thoughts. Caring for the dog, he said, turned him “from being the patient to the caretaker.”
Third, he says the two did try to start a family. After IVF attempts failed, they began looking at egg donors, and he says he stopped because he was afraid he would die and leave her with a child “who wasn’t biologically hers.”
What illness did Joe Manganiello have?
He says it began shortly after the couple’s November 2015 wedding. The publisher describes a cascade of autoimmune-related illnesses that hit his skin, thyroid, eyes, lungs and digestive system over seven years.
In his account, the symptoms included abdominal pain so severe he could not walk, fevers, blistering rashes, headaches and fatigue. He lost 60 pounds, went through repeated colonoscopies and in 2016 had emergency surgery that removed part of his intestines and left him with an ostomy bag.
An ostomy is a surgically created opening in the abdomen that lets waste leave the body into a pouch, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Manganiello says a later surgery reconnected his digestive tract.
He told People that after years of treatments that did not work, he saw a shaman in Santa Monica, who tied his illness to generational trauma, including relatives lost in the Armenian genocide. He says he is now symptom-free and off medication.
He is engaged to actress Caitlin O’Connor, and said the two are considering children. “For seven years I thought I was going to be dead the next week,” he said. “The world has opened back up to me.”
Why did Joe Manganiello and Sofía Vergara divorce?
They married in 2015, and Manganiello filed for divorce in July 2023, after seven years of marriage. Their joint statement at the time gave no reason.
Vergara’s version came in 2024. “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 told the Spanish newspaper El País.
She already has an adult son, Manolo, from her first marriage, and said that having more children was “not for me anymore.”
Manganiello’s version started that July, when he told Men’s Journal her account was “simply not true.” He said they talked about children in their first month of dating, and that he promised he would never leave over it.
Asked about that in 2024, Vergara told Variety she did not know whether he had actually said it.
Vergara’s representatives did not respond to requests for comment on the book from several outlets.
The take: the two accounts are less opposite than the headlines suggest. Both put children at the center of the split. Where they part is the order: she says he wanted kids and she did not; he says his illness had already ruled them out. Until she answers, the book is the only full version.
When does Bloodlines come out?
Bloodlines: A Memoir is published by Avid Reader Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, on Tuesday, Oct. 13, in hardcover (320 pages), e-book and an audiobook read by Manganiello. Beyond the marriage and the illness, it follows his search into his family’s history, including his Armenian ancestors.
If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the U.S.
More from Celebrities: what Tom Brady’s book says about Gisele Bündchen, Mia Goth’s divorce filing against Shia LaBeouf and how Amanda Seyfried and Thomas Sadoski announced their split.
— Bruno Monteiro
Sources: Joe Manganiello, Bloodlines: A Memoir (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster, Oct. 13, 2026), excerpts and interview published by People, Oct. 7, 2026; Simon & Schuster book page; Page Six (Eric Todisco); E! News (Sabba Rahbar); BuzzFeed (Ellen Durney); Sofía Vergara to El País (January 2024), People (2024) and Variety (2024); Joe Manganiello to Men’s Journal (July 2024); Cleveland Clinic (definition of an ostomy). Photos: Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster; Netflix (Griselda, One Piece); NBC (Deal or No Deal Island).
Reported from People excerpts on Web.
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