End of the road. After years of being together, many fans are wondering why Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello broke up.
On July 17, 2023, the former couple made a joint statement that they intended to divorce. “We have made the difficult decision to divorce,” the couple said in a statement to Page Six. “As two people that love and care for one another very much, we politely ask for respect for our privacy at this time as we navigate this new phase of our lives.”
The news comes a week after the Modern Family actress was seen celebrating her 51st birthday without Manganiello and without her wedding ring on. So what’s the reason why Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello are breaking up? Read more to find out.
Why are Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello breaking up?
Why are Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello breaking up? In an interview with Spanish newspaper El País, Vergara revealed the reason for their split was a disagreement about expanding their family. “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 explained. “I feel it’s not fair to the baby. I respect whoever does it, but that’s not for me anymore.”
She shares one son with her ex-husband Joe Gonzalez. “I had a son at 19, who is now 32, and I’m ready to be a grandmother, not a mother. So, if love comes along, he has to come with [his own] children,” she said of any future partners. “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.”
According to some sources quoted by Page Six, the couple simply grew apart. “Sofía and Joe have been growing apart for a while now and are taking some distance from each other to contemplate their future,” the source said.
Another source told Entertainment Tonight that the two are living separate lives. “They have been spending time apart and focusing on themselves, their careers, and their loved ones. Sofia has been giving her all to her new beauty brand, toty, and is very involved and excited about it,” the source shares. “She hosted an event to celebrate the launch towards the end of June at her home in Los Angeles, and Joe was not there.” The source also added, “She did still have a framed photo of the two of them kissing set up in a room in her home.”
Another source confirmed the details to People. “They have been growing apart for some time now and tried to resolve things, but they are focused on different areas of their lives,” one source said, while also describing them having “passionate, all-encompassing romance, which kept the flames hot for quite a while.”
Another source also concurred with the loving romance at the time, but the flames died down. “I have never seen two people so in love, so passionate and so happy,” the insider says. “They were always, laughing, lovey-dovey and really happy. There was a magical glow above their heads. They are both real people and down to earth.” They continued, “They definitely love and respect each other but once that initial passion dies down and other areas get in the way, then little differences get bigger,” the source continues.
“Sofía is a smart and hardworking girl who thinks of everything that could go wrong before it actually does,” the source close to Vergara says. “Joe is pretty low key and for years this suited both of them. This has been chipping away for a while.”
Other sources told the site that the individuals “differ immensely in style and what they like to do, although during the marriage, each tried to put the other’s interests ahead of their own to make it work.”
The insider continued, “Their physical attraction to each other only carried their marriage that far. On a day-to-day basis, there are so many other things that need to work. There were several things that didn’t work.” Such things include the ex-couple “often bickering about the small things” as they were “both very stubborn,” the source said, which led to a “very negative energy” around the couple which surrounded the “past few months” of their relationship.
“They were really trying to make it work though,” the source assured. “They do love each other. No one wants to constantly bicker with their spouse though. Joe has absolutely nothing bad to say about her. She is a great woman. They were just not great together in the long run.”
A source told DailyMail that Joe’s sobriety impacted their relationship since Sofia was not sober. “He was warned about this when he started dating her and again before marrying her. He did not think that he was going to change her but he also didn’t think about the implications this could have on their marriage.” Though another source told the site that Vergara “could not have been more supportive” of her ex-husband’s sobriety.
Manganiello officially filed for divorce on July 19, 2023, according to TMZ. The ex-couple has a prenup in place and that Manganiello hired Laura Wasser as his lawyer.
The Emmy award winner celebrated her birthday in Italy with her friends and fans noticed that her (now ex) husband was not at the scene. “At the start of Sofia’s big birthday trip those close to her were explaining away Joe’s absence with the excuse that he was busy filming back on the East Coast; that excuse barely held up due to the writer’s strike, but once the actor’s strike took effect, he could have been on the first flight… and he quite clearly is not,” a source also told the site. “So now no one out there with her is even attempting to pretend that it’s not over. It’s over. It’s done.”
Some fans pointed out Mangaiello’s absence on Vergara’s Instagram post and his own birthday tribute to her where he captioned the post, “¡¡¡Feliz Cumpleaños Sofía!!!” “Am I the only one who doesn’t like the way it sounds? “ Sofia”…. not even “ My love, My beloved wife” …. 🤦♀️,” one fan observed.
The Wicked star and America’s Got Talent judge met at the 2014 White House Correspondents’ Dinner and reconnected after Vergara’s Modern Family co-star Jesse Tyler Ferguson introduced them. Vergara was engaged to Nick Loeb at the time. However, Manganiello was smitten with her at first site. “Yeah, I totally got busted,” he told E! News back in 2014. “That was actually funny when we first started dating, months after that. We had talked I guess, or kind of bumped into each other, but we didn’t start dating until she was single. I mean, she had a boyfriend at that time, so I probably could have got in a fight for doing that. I’m not trying to start a fight at the White House.”
The two became engaged six months after dating. “Our first date was in June, and then I proposed to her on Christmas Eve; [we dated for] about six months. When you know, you know, and we knew right away—like, very quickly,” he recalled during a 2015 interview with Haute Living. “We had this big bay window [that I opened up], and the sun was going down pink over the mountains and over the bay, and I had this ring. I had looked at every ring in the world, and this is the ring that I wanted. I had a whole speech prepared in Spanish. I proposed to her on one knee in Spanish with the sun going down. It was awesome.”
Manganiello and Vergara married on at the Breakers Resort in Palm Beach, Florida, on November 22, 2015. According to People, the couple exchanged vows in both English and Spanish and said “I will” instead of “I do.”
“We don’t have to be on top of each other. So that has helped. [Joe] works out at the gym, while I’m recording some things or he has his Zoom meetings in his office,” the actress shared with People. “We’ve been lucky that we can escape. Everyone does their own thing. I think that’s why we haven’t had one fight yet.”
“I knew pretty quickly that I could trust her, and she knew pretty quickly that she could trust me,” Manganiello talked about their relationship before their fifth anniversary to People. “And we’re both the kind of people who are capable of putting the other person ahead of ourselves. I was capable of putting her wishes ahead of mine, whatever they were, and she was capable of doing the same. Once you have that, you don’t let go of it.”
A week before their divorce, Vergara and Manganiello posted a Happy Birthday post for their 10-year-old dog Bubbles. “Feliz 10th cumpleaños my sweet, vicious Bubbles!” Vergara wrote on Instagram. “No matter how many times u bite me I will always love u❤️❤️.” Vergara also has a 31-year-old son Manolo Gonzalez Vergara who she shares with highschool sweetheart Joe Gonzalez.
Manganiello posted a video of the senior dog licking her puppuccino for her birthday. “HAPPY 10th BIRTHDAY BUBBLES!!! #puppuccino” he posted on Instagram.
The dog parents gushed about their pet and Vergara talked about her preference to Manganiello. “She hates me. She was supposed to be for me. She was supposed to be my dog,” Vergara spilled on The Tonight Show. “She arrived to the house, and I don’t know, she thought she was for Joe, and that’s all she wants to do.”
“I have to say, he treats her like she’s a little daughter he has. But she insists on, you know, behaving like a concubine or like a mistress or something,” she continued. “She sleeps with him. She gets angry when I walk in the room. It’s a whole thing now in the house.”
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