Sofia Vergara has finally revealed why her marriage to Joe Manganiello ended after seven years.
The Modern Family star, 51, recently opened up about her split from the Magic Mike actor, 47, in an interview with Spanish newspaper El País on 15 January. Back in July 2023, representatives for the former couple issued a statement to Page Six about their separation.
“We have made the difficult decision to divorce,” Vergara and Manganiello said in the statement. “As two people that love and care for one another very much, we politely ask for respect of our privacy at this time as we navigate this new phase of our lives.”
Two days later, Manganiello filed for divorce and cited “irreconcilable differences” as the reason for the couple’s split. Speaking to El País, Vergara confirmed speculation that the pair had “conflicting opinions” about having children, which led to their divorce.
“I’m newly divorced from my second husband, who I was with for 10 years. My marriage broke up because my husband was younger; he wanted to have kids and I didn’t want to be an old mom,” Vergara told the outlet.
While the America’s Got Talent judge is already a mother to son Manolo Gonzalez Vergara from a previous marriage, she explained that having another child was not in the cards for her. “I feel it’s not fair to the baby,” she continued. “I respect whoever does it, but that’s not for me anymore. I had a son at 19, who is now 32, and I’m ready to be a grandmother, not a mother.”
Vergara went on to admit that if “love comes along” in the future, then whoever she dates “has to come with” his own children.
“I’m almost in menopause; it’s the natural way of things,” she added. “When my son becomes a dad, let him bring the baby to me for a while and then I’ll give it back to him and go on with my life; that’s what I have to do.”
Prior to her relationship with Manganiello, the Colombian-American actor married her high school sweetheart, Joe Gonzalez, at age 18. They welcomed their son Manolo in September 1991, before divorcing in 1993.
Vergara and Manganiello first met in May 2014 while attending the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. They went on their first date in June of that year while Vergara was filming Hot Pursuit, Manganiello recalled in an interview with Haute Living in 2015. He acknowledged that they got to know each other in a short time, before he “went and got a ring and made it official” in December 2014.
In 2018, three years after getting married, Manganiello told Cigar Aficionado that the biggest adjustment for him was “coming to grips with the idea that someone who is not related to you could possibly love you that much”.
“She was it for me,” he said, adding: “People say things like: ‘Marriage and relationships are work.’ But it’s not. Life is hard. Having somebody to help you deal with it is the greatest thing that ever happened.”
Manganiello is reportedly dating 33-year-old actor Caitlin O’Connor.
