Joe Manganiello believes his mystery illness may have cost him his marriage to Sofía Vergara.
The actor, 49, who is now engaged to Caitlin O’Connor after two years of dating, opened up about the 2023 split during an appearance on SiriusXM’s “Radio Andy” Wednesday. Host Andy Cohen, 58, asked whether Manganiello thought the marriage would have “survived” if he had been in better health.
“Possibly, maybe,” Manganiello replied.
Cohen also pressed him on whether he regretted not being in better health during their time together.
“Yeah, of course,” Manganiello responded. He added that he often thinks about it when he sees photos of the couple from when they first started dating.
“It’s heartbreaking when you look at these two people with life ahead of them, but for us, we didn’t know what was ahead,” he continued. “I felt guilty for a long time.”
Manganiello said he had spoken to Vergara, now 54, about his feelings of guilt during their marriage.
“I felt guilty. I felt like a burden. I knew that everyone was sick of me, sick of watching me go through this,” he said. He also revealed that he has not spoken to Vergara since they finalized their divorce in February 2024.
The “True Blood” alum’s health struggles take center stage in his new memoir, “Bloodlines,” released Oct. 13. In the book, he discloses that he battled life-threatening “autoimmune-related illnesses” for seven years, ultimately leading to the “amputation” of an organ. He previously said in a statement that it was “the most brutally difficult time of [his] life, one [he] wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, but also [his] greatest adventure.”
Manganiello also turned to unconventional treatments during his illness. He claims in the memoir that a Cuba-based shaman told him over the phone that someone who still had feelings for Vergara had put a curse on him.
“Someone from your past is still in love with you. He put a voodoo curse on your husband. He did it in New Orleans,” he recalls the shaman telling them.
Elsewhere in “Bloodlines,” Manganiello alleges that Vergara “ridiculed” him while he was sick, particularly over his dog, Bubbles, whom he adopted in 2019 while struggling with suicidal thoughts.
“I had to give my gun away because I kept thinking about it, and then the dog came,” he writes. “I went from being the patient to the caretaker.”
He also claims that Vergara refused to hug him, even when he begged her for affection during his illness.
Vergara, for her part, previously said that Manganiello’s desire to have children — while she did not want to be an “old mom” — led to their divorce, a claim he later disputed, saying it wasn’t “inevitably why everything ended.”
In response to the memoir’s allegations, the “Modern Family” alum shared a post about “narcissistic men” from her 35-year-old son, Manolo, whom she shares with her first husband, Joe Gonzalez.
“Remember kids … it doesn’t matter how much you do for [a narcissist],” the post read. “They will resent you for it and nothing will ever be enough, and they’ll always somehow try to paint you as the bad guy.”
Manganiello addressed the backlash from Vergara during an appearance on “CBS Mornings” this month.
“Well, I think anybody who said that should read the book first and understand what the book is actually about, because it’s not about that,” he said. “It’s about the suffering I went through.”
Manganiello and Vergara married in November 2015 after meeting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. They announced their separation in July 2023 after nearly eight years of marriage, with Vergara filing for divorce that same month citing irreconcilable differences. The split was finalized in February 2024.
Manganiello’s memoir “Bloodlines” is currently available in stores.