Sofia Vergara Responds to Joe Manganiello’s Reason for Divorce

Sofia Vergara is addressing the comments made by her ex-husband Joe Manganiello regarding the cause of their divorce. Last year, Vergara mentioned that the split was due to differing views on expanding their family. In a July 2023 interview with the Spanish newspaper El Pais, the Modern Family star stated that she and Manganiello didn’t agree on having children.

Vergara elaborated, “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 emphasized her perspective, adding, “I feel it’s not fair to the baby. I respect whoever does it, but that’s not for me anymore.” The actress has a 32-year-old son, Manolo, born when she was 19, and she feels ready to become a grandmother rather than a mother again.

Vergara had Manolo with her first husband, Joe Gonzalez, from whom she divorced in 1993. However, Manganiello offered a different narrative regarding their separation. In an interview with Men’s Journal last month, he claimed that their breakup was not about children.

“We did try to have a family for the first year and a half. We had a huge conversation during the first month we dated,” Manganiello said, recounting his relationship with Vergara. “I said, ‘If you’re done with kids, then I understand. Just tell me, and I’ll know what this is, and that’s okay.’ 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.”

Manganiello explained that their split resulted from growing apart. “It’s because two people grew apart, and sometimes that happens,” he stated. He also expressed his frustration with public misconceptions about his role in the breakup, especially when rumors surfaced that he had given Vergara an ultimatum.

“To be painted as if I had some sort of midlife crisis, and after nine years, 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,” Manganiello said.

Vergara responded to Manganiello’s comments later, suggesting that the truth might be more complex. “At the end of the day, you never even know if that’s what he said for real,” she said in a recent cover story with Variety. “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.”