Joe Manganiello isn’t really buying into ex-wife Sofia Vergara’s explanation for why their marriage didn’t work out.
“My marriage fell apart because my husband was younger. He wanted to have children and I didn’t want to be an old mother,” the “Griselda” star told El Pais in January, six months after the power couple split.
In an interview published in Men’s Journal on Tuesday, Manganiello, the “True Blood” alum who turned to reality TV this year as host and executive producer of “Deal or No Deal Island,” disputed this portrayal of his 2023 divorce.
“That’s simply not true,” he told the magazine. “The issue of having children was not the reason it all ended. It was because two people became estranged, and sometimes that happens.”
The 47-year-old added: “To be portrayed as if I had a midlife crisis and nine years later I gave someone an ultimatum: ‘If you do anything that might be bad for you, I’m gone’? That’s not who I was.”
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The “Magic Mike” star explained, “We tried to have a family for the first year and a half, and then within the first month of dating, we had a lot of conversations right away. I said, ‘If you’re sick of having kids, I understand. Just tell me, and I’ll know what that means, and I’ll be okay with it.'”
“But she wasn’t. She swore to herself that if it didn’t work out, she’d never break up. And she didn’t.”
In an interview with El Pais newspaper, Vergara, who is mother to 32-year-old Manolo Vergara, explained why she doesn’t want to have any more children, saying, “I feel it’s unfair to the baby. I respect who gives birth to him, but it doesn’t matter to me anymore.”
“I’m ready to be a grandmother, not just a mother,” she said.
Vergara and Manganiello married in November 2015. Manganiello filed for divorce in July 2023, with Vergara also seeking an end to their seven-year marriage, citing “irreconcilable differences.”
Joe Manganiello is currently dating Caitlin O’Connor
Earlier this year, Manganiello publicly confirmed on Instagram that he was dating 34-year-old actress and model Caitlin O’Connor, who stars in the Max series “Winning Time: The Rise of a Laker Dynasty.”
The pair made their red carpet debut together at the Armenian Children’s Fund Gala in New York City in December, before attending the Art of Elysium Gala together in Los Angeles in January.
“Celebrated Valentine’s Day with Tool and Caitlyn,” Manganiello wrote in a February “This Week in Review” post, along with a heart emoji. He also shared photos of him and O’Connor, 34, at a Tool concert, as well as another photo of her standing next to roses and a box of chocolates.
“If things go badly, it’s good to have a good partner in your life,” he told Men’s Journal about his new relationship.
Contributor: Brendan Morrow
