Joe Manganiello is telling his version of events.
The Magic Mike actor has denied that he and Sofia Vergara divorced over him wanting children and her not wanting them.
"That’s simply not true," Manganiello told Men's Journal in a new cover interview.
"We did try to have a family for the first year and a half," he explained. "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 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."
While Vergara previously put the issue of kids as central to their separation, Manganiello claimed that "wasn't inevitably why everything ended. It's because two people grew apart, and sometimes that happens."
Further explaining why he chose to tell his side of the story, Manganiello said, "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."
Speaking to Spanish newspaper El País in January, Vergara said, "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 continued, "I feel it’s not fair to the baby. I respect whoever does it, but that’s not for me anymore."
Manganiello and Vergara were married in 2015, and announced they were parting ways in July 2023.
"We have made the difficult decision to divorce," they wrote in a statement to Page Six. "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."
While the exes didn't have any children together, Vergara is mom to son Manolo, 32, from a previous relationship.
