Sofia Vergara Reacts to Joe Manganiello's Claims About Their Split

Joe Manganiello and Sofia Vergara. Doug Peters/PA Images/INSTARimages

Sofía Vergara has mixed feelings about her ex-husband Joe Manganiello’s claim that differing opinions on having kids isn’t what caused their split.

“At the end of the day, you never even know if that’s what he said for real,” the actress, 52, told Variety in a profile published on Wednesday, 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.”

Back in January, Vergara told the Spanish newspaper El País that she and Manganiello, 47, parted ways because they didn’t agree on whether to have kids together. “My marriage broke up because my husband was younger,” she explained. “He wanted to have kids and I didn’t want to be an old mom.”

Vergara — who shares Manolo, 32, with her ex-husband Joe Gonzalez — said that while she respects women who are older moms, the role was not one she wanted to take on. “I had a son at 19, who is now 32, and I’m ready to be a grandmother, not a mother,” she stated.

Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello: The Way They Were

Manganiello, however, claimed in a July interview with Men’s Journal that Vergara’s comments about their divorce were “simply not true.” He noted: “We did try to have a family for the first year and a half. 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. And I swore to her that I would never leave if it didn’t work out. And I didn’t.”

He continued: “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.”

Joe Manganiello and Sofia Vergara. Vince Flores/Startraks

Vergara and Manganiello announced in July 2023 that they were splitting after seven years of marriage. A source exclusively told Us Weekly at the time that the pair “were living different lives” before their breakup. “There wasn’t cheating or anything like that. They both realized that they were rarely on the same page,” the insider added.

A second source told Us that same month that Vergara and Manganiello were “living apart” for a while before mutually agreeing to go their separate ways.

Manganiello cited irreconcilable differences as the reason for their breakup in his July 2023 divorce docs. Vergara, for her part, asked the court to enforce their prenuptial agreement. Us confirmed in April that the pair’s divorce had been finalized.

Sofia Vergara’s Dating History

Before settling their split, Vergara and Manganiello each moved on with new romantic partners. Manganiello made his red carpet debut with actress Caitlin O’Connor after three months of dating in December 2023, while Vergara was first spotted with her boyfriend, orthopedic surgeon Justin Saliman, in October 2023.

In a May interview with People, Vergara noted that it was “hard” to jump back into the dating scene over the age of 50. “I’m not going to be now picky about, ‘Oh, he can only be a doctor. Oh, he can only be an astronaut,’” she said. “No, I mean, I’m not that picky.”