Sofia Vergara has responded to ex-husband Joe Manganiello’s claims that their marriage didn’t end because of their differing opinions on having children.
The former couple announced their split in July 2023 after seven years of marriage. The Modern Family alum told Spanish newspaper El País that their split had stemmed from the Magic Mike actor wanting a child, while she did not. Manganiello later disputed that claim in a July interview with Men’s Journal.
Speaking to Variety, the America’s Got Talent judge clarified that she wasn’t completely sure how accurate her ex-husband’s statements actually were. “At the end of the day, you never even know if that’s what he said for real,” she told the outlet on August 14.
“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.”
In his interview with Men’s Journal, Manganiello said that the couple did not break up over children, despite media speculation. “There’s been a lot said in the press about me wanting a family. That’s simply not true,” he told the outlet last month.
“We did try to have a family for the first year and a half,” he explained. “And we had a huge conversation right out of the gate during the first month we dated.”
“I said, ‘If you’re done with kids, then I understand. Just tell me, and I’ll know what this is, and that’s OK.’ But that wasn’t the case with her,” the actor continued. “And I swore to her that I would never leave if it didn’t work out. And I didn’t.”
Despite the True Blood actor admitting that he did want children, he noted that he and Vergara instead “grew apart.”
“It’s because two people grew apart, and sometimes that happens,” Manganiello shared, adding: “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.”
Meanwhile, Vergara initially told El País that the two had “conflicting opinions” about children. “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 told the outlet.
The Griselda actor is already a mother to her 32-year-old son, Manolo Gonzalez Vergara, from a previous marriage. Vergara maintained that would rather be a grandmother instead of a mother.
“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.”
“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.”
Vergara is currently dating Justin Saliman, an orthopedic surgeon at Cedars-Sinai and founder of OutcomeMD. Meanwhile, Manganiello is dating actor Caitlin O’Connor.