Joe Manganiello and Sofia Vergara have broken their silence on their high-profile relationship and split after seven years of marriage.
And with both speaking separately and in apparent contradiction it seems the damage is deep and irreparable.
The disconnect started in January 2024 when Vergara, 52, told Spanish newspaper El Pais that Manganiello’s desire to have more children was the main cause of their relationship breakdown.
‘’My marriage broke up because my husband was younger, he wanted to have more kids and I didn’t want to become an old mum,’’ she said.
‘’I had a son at 19, who is now 32, and I’m ready to be a grandmother, not a mother.’’
But Manganiello, 47, fired back at those claims in an interview with Men’s Journal.
‘’There’s been a lot said in the press about me wanting a family. That’s simply not true,’’ the actor and producer said.
‘’We did try to have a family for the first year and a half. And we had a huge conversation right out of the gate during the first month we dated.
‘’I said, ‘if you’re done with kids, then I understand. Just tell me, and I’ll know what this is, and that’s OK.’
‘’But that wasn’t the case with her. And I swore to his that I would never leave if it didn’t work out. And I didn’t.’’
Manganiello told Men’s Journal he did want to have children, but that’s not why he and Vergara split.
‘’It’s because two people grew apart, and sometimes that happens,’’ he said.
‘’To be painted as if I had some sort of midlife crisis, and after nine years (together) I 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.’’
The media furore has left Vergara confused and she told Variety: “At the end of the day, you never even know if that’s what he said for real.”
“I’ve read a lot of things that I’ve said that I’m like, ‘Huh?’ What am I gonna do, call him? I don’t know if he even said that.”
Is Sofia Vergara dating again?
gara wasn’t single for long after her divorce and is currently dating Dr Justin Saliman.
The couple were seen together in 2023 and, according to Hola! the Modern Family star made it Instagram official after her divorce proceedings were finalised.
Vergara shared an Instagram Story with her new beau captioned: “If u ever get a major knee surgery make sure u get a handsome doctor who will sleep with u that night!!!! “Luv u <3”
In the picture, Saliman can be seen holding her leg and posing for the camera.
Vergara has also spoken about her go-to mantra: “Don’t think too much,” which has got her through some hard times.
“When you sit too much with your thoughts, that’s when people get depressed and people get paralysed,” she shared with Variety.
Who is Sofia Vergara’s boyfriend, Justin Saliman?
Sofia Vergara’s boyfriend Dr Justin Saliman is a distinguished orthopeadic surgeon with expertise in knee joint and meniscus repair.
He and Vergara were introduced by mutual friends who told Life & Style that Vergara was immediately sold.
“Justin impressed her right off the bat by showing up to their first date with flowers and her favourite champagne,” said one.
According to US Weekly a source shared that Saliman is unbothered by Vergara’s celebrity status. “Sofía is attracted to his sense of humour and his intelligence. Plus, he’s a total gentleman and treats her with nothing but respect. She’s excited to see where things go.”
Past relationship: How long were Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello together?
All up the couple were together for nine years.
They first met at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in May 2014; at the time, Vergara was engaged to businessman Nick Loeb.
Weeks after their first meeting, Vergara called off her engagement to Loeb, with a source telling People the pair had been on ‘’rocky ground’’ for some time,
Manganiello then asked Modern Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson for Vergara’s phone number.
They went on their first date together in June 2014 and went public with their relationship that August.
When did Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello get married?
Manganiello proposed to Vergara on Christmas Eve, 2014, popping the question when they were holidaying in Hawaii.
‘’When you know, you know, and we knew right away – like, very quickly,’’ Manganiello told Haute Living.
The pair married on November 22, 2015, at the Breakers Resort in Palm Beach, Florida, with about 350 guests in attendance.
The couple danced to Frank Sinatra’s version of ‘The Way You Look Tonight,’ with Vergara in a stunning Zuhair Murad gown and Manganiello dapper in a classic black tux.
When did Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello split up?
The pair released a joint statement in July 2023 announcing their marriage was over.
‘’We have made the difficult decision to divorce,’’ the statement read. ‘’As two people that love and care for one another very much, we politely ask for respect for our privacy at this time as we navigate this new phase of our lives.’’
Who is Sofia Vergara’s son?
Sofia Vergara has an adult son, Manolo Gonzalez Vergara, from her first marriage. Manolo, now 32, works alongside his mum in numerous endeavours, including the TV show Celebrity Family Food Battle and a Latin food brand called Toma.
Who is the father of Sofia Vergara’s son?
Manolo was born on September 16, 1991, in Vergara’s home country of Colombia.
At the time, Vergara was only 19 and married to her highschool sweetheart, Joe Gonzalez, but they split two years after Manolo was born.
Vergara told People in May this year that she wished she had been a little older when she had Manolo.
‘’I wish I was older sometimes, because I would have been more mature, more prepared to be a mother, but that was what I got and what happened,’’ she said.
‘’So I just kept going, and try not to look back at it, because it is what it is. But it is fun, because I kind of grew up with my son.’’
What made Sofia Vergara famous?
Vergara first rose to prominence hosting Spanish-language TV shows in the 1990s, before breaking into English-language stardom with her role as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett in the American sitcom Modern Family.
The TV show became a huge hit and ran from 2009 to 2020.
Since then, she’s starred in the Netflix hit Griselda and become a judge on the US version of America’s Got Talent.
