Nearly a year after filing for divorce from Sofia Vergara, Joe Manganiello denies their relationship imploded because he wanted a baby.
“There’s been a lot of press about my desire to start a family,” the “Deal or No Deal Island” host told Men’s Health in a story published Tuesday. “That’s just not true.”
In January, Vergara, 52, told El País newspaper that her marriage “broke down because my husband was younger, he wanted to have children and I didn’t want to be an old mother. I think it’s not fair to the baby.”
Vergara has a 32-year-old son, named Manolo, from her first marriage.
SOFIA VERGARA AND JOE MANGANNIELLO FINALIZE THEIR DIVORCE: “SHE IS VERY HAPPY”
Nearly a year after filing for divorce from Sofía Vergara, Joe Manganiello is denying claims their relationship imploded because he wanted to have a baby. (Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)
Manganiello, 47, told Men’s Health, however, that the former couple had tried to get pregnant in the beginning.
“We were trying to start a family for the first year and a half,” he revealed. “And we had a long conversation right at the beginning, within the first month of dating. I said, ‘If you’re done with kids, then I understand. Just tell me and I’ll know what you mean, and it’ll be OK.’ But that wasn’t the case with her. And I swore to her that I would never leave if it didn’t work out. And I didn’t.”
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Manganiello filed for divorce in July 2023 after eight years of marriage, citing “irreconcilable differences.”
The former “True Blood” actor said that while he wanted to have children, he and Vergara didn’t get around to it because “two people drifted apart, and sometimes that happens.”
Sofia Vergara with her son, Manolo, in 2017 (Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)
He also told the magazine that he was hurt by the story that he left her because she didn’t want children.
“To be portrayed as if I had some sort of midlife crisis and then nine years later I turned to someone and gave them an ultimatum like, ‘Do this potentially unhealthy thing to your body or I’m gone’? I’ve never been like that,” he explained.
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Manganiello is now dating actress Caitlin O’Connor, 34, and Vergara is dating orthopedic surgeon Justin Saliman. (Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images for Netflix I Hollywood Curtain/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)
Last year, the couple released a joint statement saying: “We have made the difficult decision to divorce. As two people who love and care deeply for each other, we politely ask for our privacy during this new phase of our lives.”
Manganiello is now dating actress Caitlin O’Connor, 34, and Vergara is dating orthopedic surgeon Justin Saliman.
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Fox News Digital has reached out to Vergara’s representatives for comment.
