Actor Joe Manganiello’s new memoir, “Bloodlines,” recounts his marriage to Sofia Vergara, a severe illness and an unusual claim he says a shaman made about a curse. The account of the curse is Manganiello’s recollection; the material provides no independent evidence that one was placed on him.
Manganiello and Vergara married in 2015 and announced their separation in 2023. Their divorce was finalized in 2024. In the memoir, Manganiello writes that he proposed in Spanish in Kauai, Hawaii. He says they discussed having children and began trying through in vitro fertilization before they were engaged, but did not succeed after two years. He says they also considered surrogacy, then decided against it after spending $200,000, citing his illness as a factor.
Manganiello describes being hospitalized for two months after a year of symptoms. He says Vergara visited discreetly to avoid photographers and that, while he was undergoing surgery, she had to decide whether doctors should remove his large intestine. He credits her with authorizing the operation that he says saved his life. He writes that he woke after a 10-hour procedure with an ostomy bag, potentially for an indefinite period, and that he lost 60 pounds in two weeks.
He says his illness changed his day-to-day life and contributed to the marriage deteriorating. In his account, he lived separately from Vergara within their home during the day, and the couple’s shared hope of becoming parents faded. He also connects his declining enthusiasm for life with the relationship’s loss of closeness.
The memoir’s curse account centers on a shaman based in Cuba, whom Manganiello says told him his intestinal illness was real and that something was wrong with his intestines. Manganiello recalls the shaman then saying a man from Vergara’s past, still in love with her, had cursed her husband in New Orleans. The shaman allegedly offered to cleanse and protect Manganiello, but said he would need to meet him outside the United States, possibly in Ecuador.
Manganiello writes that he was stunned and tried to identify the ex the shaman might have meant. He says he eventually suspected Nick Loeb, who had been engaged to Vergara before the relationship ended in 2014. Vergara began dating Manganiello that same year. Manganiello also recalls Loeb having a serious car accident while he was dating Vergara, and says he wondered whether Vergara herself might have been cursed. These are Manganiello’s speculations, not established facts.
Loeb responded to the allegations in a statement to Page Six, saying, “I pray they find Jesus — not another shaman.” The source material does not include a response from Vergara.
Manganiello also describes moving out of the couple’s Beverly Hills home after Vergara left for a trip to Italy with a friend. He writes that he secured a place in Venice Beach, arranged for basic furnishings and moved his belongings before filing for divorce.
The memoir further says Vergara lent him $500,000 without interest to help complete the 2019 film “Bottom of the 9th,” which Manganiello produced and starred in. He says a budget problem emerged during postproduction and that the loan helped prevent the bond company from taking over the film. At the time of the divorce, he writes, he still owed Vergara $400,000.
Manganiello also addresses public comments about the divorce, calling them annoying in the memoir, and recounts statements he says Vergara made as he left. Separately, he suggests Tom Cruise may have influenced a decision not to cast him in Amazon’s “Reacher.” Manganiello says executives had favored him for the role of Lee Child before another actor was selected, and speculates Cruise could have vetoed him because of Vergara. The source notes that Cruise is not listed on IMDb Pro as an executive producer of the series, and does not establish that he intervened.
