Six months after Joe Manganiello and Sofia Vergara revealed they are divorcing, Vergara is speaking out about what ultimately led to their decision to end their message.
And as Sofia admitted in her latest interview, there was one major issue that they couldn’t get past; children.
While talking with Spanish newspaper El País, Vergara revealed 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.”
Vergara, 51, is already a mom to her now-adult son Manolo who she shares with her first hubsand. “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,” Vergara candidly told El País.
“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.”
Joe Manganiello and Sofia Vergara aren’t just separating – they’re getting divorced. The former couple, who have been married since November 2015, announced their separation on July 17. Just two days later, divorce documents reveal that Manganiello has filed for divorce due to ‘irreconcilable’ differences.’
“We have made the difficult decision to divorce,” they shared in a joint statement on July 17 – an exact reason for the divorce wasn’t given at the time. “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.”
According to the documents, which were obtained by PEOPLE, Manganiello listed July 2 as their date of separation and also confirmed they signed a prenup prior to getting married. That means their split came just one week before Vergara’s 51st birthday on July 10 – which she celebrated with friends in Italy.
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While Joe Manganiello took to Instagram to wish his then-estranged wife a happy birthday, it’s worth noting that he wasn’t with her on the birthday trip and she wasn’t wearing her wedding ring in any of the pictures/videos she took. The clues were there, but it’s now clear that they’ve been separated for weeks.
With that being said, it’s also worth noting that Joe hasn’t posted a *new* photo of him and Sofia since June 8 – when they were spotted at Blue Hill at Stone Barns in New York – and haven’t appeared on the red carpet together since March – when they were photographed at the Vanity Fair Oscar party.
In the days since going public with their separation, several sources have enlightened PEOPLE on what might’ve caused the divorce. It was originally reported that they’ve suffered ‘ups and downs for a long time’ and that they ’differ immensely in style and what they like to do’ – they avoid showing it in public.
More recently, those sources have attributed their divorce to Manganiello’s desire to have children with Vergara – something she apparently had no interest in. “He really wanted to have a baby with her and she wasn’t interested and it caused a rift,” the source told PEOPLE. It’s unclear when the conflict began.
Joe Manganiello and Sofia Vergara Were Married for 7 Years
Joe Manganiello and Sofia Vergara originally met in June 2014 at a White House Correspondents’ Dinner. The couple started dating shortly after and their love blossomed fairly quickly – he proposed six months later on Christmas Day (December 25) and they got married in Palm Beach, FL on November 22, 2015.
Manganiello, who is five years younger than Vergara, had never been married before – which explains why he might be interested in growing a family. On the other hand, Vergara was married to her high school sweetheart, Joe Gonzalez, between 1991 and 1993 – they share a son, Manolo, together.
Joe praised their relationship in a 2020 interview with PEOPLE. “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.”
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Nearly three years later, Joe Manganiello and Sofia Vergara are deciding to let it go. In fact, some sources are already reporting that Joe is ‘ready to move on’ and is already looking to ‘fall in love with someone.’ He hopes to minimize the drama during the divorce and is ready to find his next lover.