Joe Manganiello hits back at ex Sofia Vergara who said they divorced because of kids

Earlier this year, Sofia Vergara opened up about her divorce from her Joe Manganiello .

While talking about her divorce in January with Spanish newspaper El País , Vergara said Manganiello wanted kids and she didn’t.

Vergara told El País that her “marriage broke up because my husband was younger; he wanted to have kids and I didn’t want to be an old mom. I feel it’s not fair to the baby. 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. So, if love comes along, he has to come with [his own] children,” she continued. “I’m almost in menopause; it’s the natural way of things. 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.”

Now, Manganiello is saying the reason for their divorce had nothing to do with the kids they didn’t have.

While talking with Men’s Journal, Manganiello admitted “there’s been a lot said in the press about me wanting a family,” before calling Vergara’s earlier statements “simply not true.”

“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,’” Manganiello continued. “‘Just tell me, and I’ll know what this is, and that’s okay.’ 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.”

In the end, Manganiello said the reason for their relationship’s demise is “because two people grew apart, and sometimes that happens.”

Manganiello got candid, admitting that when he was “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,’” he took it to heart.

“That’s never who I was.”

In the end, Manganiello and Vergara separated in July 2023. Their divorce was finalized in April.