Sofia Vergara and her husband Joe Manganiello are reportedly divorcing after seven years of marriage.
The couple, who married in 2015, issued a statement through their representatives about their separation to Page Six on Monday. As they reflected on how much love they still have each other, they also asked for privacy amid the news of their separation.
“We have made the difficult decision to divorce,” the couple said in the statement. “As two people that love and care for one another very much, we politely ask for respect of our privacy at this time as we navigate this new phase of our lives.”
The news comes as Vergara has been celebrating her 51st birthday during a trip through Italy. While she’s shared posts from the vacation on Instagram, none of the photos have featured Manganiello.
The Independent has contacted representatives for Vergara and Manganiello for comment.
Earlier this month, the True Blood star divided fans with his Instagram post for Vergara’s birthday. On 10 July, he posted a throwback photo of himself and his partner, which was pixelated and blurry. It also appeared to be the same photo of the pair that the Modern Family star posted in December 2021 to celebrate Manganiello’s birthday.
Manganiello’s caption, which simply read: “Feliz Cumpleaños Sofía!” left many fans upset with him, as they claimed that the actor should have written a more “loving” tribute to his wife of seven years.
“Am I the only one who doesn’t like the way it sounds? ‘Sofia’... Not even ‘my love, my beloved wife,’” one person in the comments wrote, while another asked: “Why so dry?!”
Although many fans were critical about the lack of sentiment in Manganiello’s post, others defended the couple from speculation that their relationship was struggling.
For Vergara’s birthday in July 2022, Manganiello opted for a more elaborate Instagram post which had included a series of photos of him and his partner. In the caption at the time, he wrote: “¡Feliz Cumpleaños mi amor! I love you so much.”
Vergara and Manganiello first met in May 2014 while attending the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. They went on their first date in June of that year while Vergara was filming Hot Pursuit, as noted by Manganiello during an interview with Haute Living in 2015. However, according to the actor, Vergara had her reservations about dating again, as she had recently gotten out of a four-year relationship with Nick Loeb.
“But we knew right away, and she knew she was screwed,” he said about his feelings for the actress. “I said to her: ‘If you need to be single, go do it and do it now if that’s what you need to do,’ and she didn’t. She tried to stay away from actors and I tried to stay away from actresses as much as possible, because of the fear of being away from each other. What happened then was that we wound up in relationships with people who didn’t understand us.”
He also acknowledged that they got to know each other in a short time, before he “went and got a ring and made it official” in December 2014.
In 2018, three years after tying the knot, Manganiello opened up about his marriage to Vergara, with the Magic Mike star telling Cigar Aficionado that the biggest adjustment for him was “coming to grips with the idea that someone who is not related to you could possibly love you that much”.
“She was it for me,” he said, adding: “People say things like: ‘Marriage and relationships are work.’ But it’s not. Life is hard. Having somebody to help you deal with it is the greatest thing that ever happened.”
