Joe Manganiello has revealed a Cuba-based shaman told him that Sofía Vergara’s ex-fiancé placed a voodoo curse on him during a mystery illness.
The actor, 49, detailed the bizarre episode in his newly released memoir “Bloodlines,” recounting how the spiritual healer phoned him with startlingly specific medical information. Manganiello wrote that the shaman told him he was “sick” and that “something is wrong with his intestines,” details he insisted were unknown even to close family members. “There were members of my close family who didn’t know any of that, let alone some random guy on the phone,” he wrote in the book.
The “Magic Mike” star described his reaction to the phone call, noting how he turned to his then-wife with a mixture of emotions. “I side-eyed Sofía with a look that was equal parts fear, anger, and disbelief,” he added.
The shaman then delivered an even more shocking claim, according to Manganiello’s account. “‘Someone from your past is still in love with you. He put a voodoo curse on your husband. He did it in New Orleans,'” the actor recalled being told. The spiritual adviser proposed a solution: “‘Your husband needs to be cleansed and protected. I can do this. I can help him. But I need to see him for two days, and I cannot come to the United States. Can he meet me somewhere else? I could meet him in Ecuador.'”
Manganiello wrote that he struggled to process how the caller could possess such private knowledge. “I looked at Sofía, trying to comprehend how the f–k this guy could possibly know any of this,” he penned. “None of this had been mentioned in the press. No one knew.”
The “True Blood” alum said his thoughts immediately turned to Nick Loeb, 51, the businessman Vergara had been engaged to right before their relationship began. Manganiello and Vergara, 54, started dating in 2014, the same year the “Modern Family” alum and Loeb ended their engagement.
Manganiello claimed in the memoir that Loeb was a “trust fund baby” who had spent considerable time hospitalized after breaking “almost every bone in his body” in a “horrendous car wreck” during his time with Vergara. The actor then floated a darker theory about his former wife. “The thought crossed my mind maybe it was Sofía who was cursed, cursed by some man in her past who couldn’t have her, so he put some sort of hex on her so that for the rest of her life, she’d transmit it to any man who got together with her,” he wrote.
Despite acknowledging the strangeness of the situation, Manganiello found himself unable to dismiss it entirely. “I was fully aware of how crazy it was for me to seriously entertain thoughts this bizarre, but then again, how did the shaman know all of that about me?” he added.
The connection to New Orleans appeared to strengthen the shaman’s credibility in Manganiello’s eyes. The actor noted that Loeb had previously lived in the city — the exact location where the curse was allegedly placed. “Why did the most insane thing I’d ever heard have to make so much f–king sense? I shook my head, pulled out my phone, and began google searching flights to Guayaquil, Ecuador,” he wrote.
Manganiello’s seven-year marriage to Vergara ended in 2023, with the couple reportedly splitting over differing desires for children. The “America’s Got Talent” judge shares son Manolo Gonzalez Vergara, 35, with her first husband, Joe Gonzalez.
The actor’s memoir also touches on the severity of his health crisis during this period. He described experiencing a “night in hell” during his hospitalization for the undisclosed illness, at one point believing he would not survive. “I am going to die tonight,” he recalled thinking. Manganiello has since credited Vergara with making a “lifesaving decision” for him amid the health scare, stating, “I would have died.”
The “Nonnas” star also addressed a separate social media incident involving his ex-wife, responding to reports that Vergara had liked her son’s post allegedly calling him a “narcissistic man.”
The outlet has reached out to Loeb for comment regarding the voodoo curse allegations but did not immediately hear back.
Manganiello is currently promoting “Bloodlines” while preparing for the release of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day.”