How long were Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello married? Actress' love life explored amid divorce announcement
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello shockingly ended their marriage and announced that they have made the "difficult decision to divorce." They were married for seven years from 2015 to 2023 before they recently decided to part ways. "As two people that love and care for one another very much, we politely ask for the respect of our privacy at this time as we navigate this new phase of our lives," the pair said in a statement to Page Six.
While Vergara established herself as one of the prominent artists in the entertainment industry and one of the highest-paying actresses in the world, her personal life has been no less than a roller coaster. The 'Modern Family' has a tumultuous relationship history, with two divorces and one failed relationship. Prior to her split from Manganiello, she divorced her childhood sweetheart Joe Gonzalez in 1993. She was later engaged to Nick Loeb but the pair parted ways in 2014.
Sofia Vergara first tied the knot at 18
Vergara was just 18 years old when she married her high school sweetheart, Gonzalez, in her hometown of Barranquilla, Colombia in 1991. The wedding took place when the former started off as a model, long before she rose to fame in the world of TV and films. A year after their marriage, Vergara and Gonzalez welcomed their son, Manolo. However, the relationship came to an end just two years after the wedding.
Gonzalez and Vergara divorced in 1993 when the latter was aged 20. Speaking about her life as a young single mom, Vergara told People magazine in 2016, "I was really young when I divorced his father, so I give him the best that I could." The actress also said that she now finds it "very rewarding" to receive compliments about her now 31-year-old son.
Sofia Vergara had a whirlwind romance with Nick Loeb
Several years after her first divorce, Vergara was briefly linked to Tom Cruise. While the rumors were never proven to be true, the actress soon started dating business Loeb. The pair reportedly met in 2010 and got engaged in 2012 after nearly two years of dating. In 2013, the couple created embryos via in vitro fertilization and kept them frozen at a Beverly Hills fertility clinic. The pair also signed a contract that mentioned that none of the parties can use the embryos without the other's consent.
When Vergara called off her engagement to Loeb in 2014, marking the end of their on-and-off relationship, she got embroiled in a messy custody battle with her then-partner over the two fertilized embryos. Following their split, Loeb filed a lawsuit in a California court seeking custody of the embryos. However, he dropped the lawsuit after the court asked him to identify two women who had to undergo abortions after being impregnated by him.
In 2016, Loeb filed a right-to-life lawsuit against Vergara in Louisiana and said that he wanted to put the embryos, named "Emma" and "Isabella" in a surrogate. The businessman claimed the embryos were being deprived of an inheritance trust that he created for them. The suit also attempted to terminate Vergara's parental rights over the embryos accusing the actress of allegedly abandoning and neglecting them by placing them in cryopreservation in a medical clinic.
As the legal battle turned bitter, Loeb wrote an explosive letter and revealed that he and Vergara had "screaming fights" during their relationship. In the letter, Loeb called Vergara "classless" and claimed that she wanted to "humiliate" him while speaking in her mother tongue, Spanish, at the dinner table. The document also mentioned other fights between the pair, including a time when Vergara was allegedly "banging on the door like a maniac" when Loeb shut himself inside a washroom.
Vergara and Loeb's sour custody battle came to an end after a judge ruled in the former's favor in 2021 and imposed a permanent injunction on the embryos, preventing Loeb to access them. The latter is now suing the ART Reproductive Center over claims that he was never aware that Vergara could block him from accessing the embryos if they ended their relationship and that the embryos could be destroyed if required.
Sofia Vergara found love for the third time with Joe Manganiello
Following two heartbreaks, Vergara began dating 'True Blood' star Manganiello nearly two months after her final separation from Loeb. The pair reportedly met through Jesse Tyler Ferguson during the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in July 2014. They also engaged during Christmas that same year after six months of dating. The pair walked down the aisle on November 21, 2015.
The fairytale wedding took place at The Breakers Resort in Palm Beach, Florida, in the presence of 400 guests. Despite seven beautiful years of marriage, Vergara and Manganiello failed to have a happy ending and announced that they have parted ways. Rumors of trouble in Vergara and Manganiello's paradise began when the couple listed their Beverly Hills home for $18 million in May.
As Vergara turned 51 last week, Manganiello shared a low-resolution photo to wish his wife with a simple caption that read, "¡¡¡Feliz Cumpleaños Sofía!!!" The wish was considered to be "cold" by several fans, intensifying the speculations about a possible split. The rumors were then confirmed after Vergara and Manganiello announced their divorce in an official joint statement.