After making bombshell revelations about his marriage to ex-wife Sofía Vergara, Joe Manganiello has now shared harrowing and highly graphic details of his life-threatening health battle.
In excerpts from his upcoming memoir, Bloodlines, the 49-year-old star recounts a terrifying 2016 medical emergency that he had kept largely private for years and that nearly cost him his life.
Highlights
- Joe Manganiello’s upcoming memoir reveals the terrifying medical emergency that nearly cost him his life in 2016.
- The actor opens up about the painful reality of recovering from major surgery while trying to return to Hollywood.
- His health battle also took an emotional toll on his marriage to Sofía Vergara, adding new context to their eventual split.
He also details the painful aftermath, including adjusting to life with a mysterious, seven-year autoimmune illness while trying to return to his Hollywood career.
One fan reacted, “Glad you came out of it okay!! Scary you had to go through that!”
Joe Manganiello recalls the terrifying night his mysterious illness nearly cost him his life
Trigger warning: This article contains graphic medical details that may be distressing to some.
In excerpts from Bloodlines obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, Joe Manganiello opens up about a seven-year health struggle that left him in debilitating pain and caused him to lose 59 pounds (roughly 26 kg).
The actor recounts one particularly frightening episode he calls “The Night in Hell,” when he experienced severe rectal bleeding that covered his bathroom in blood.
“Rectal blood sprayed out, turning the bathroom floor into a crimson pool, staining the walls, the sink, and tile grout bright red,” he writes.
The following morning, doctors rushed Manganiello into emergency surgery after discovering that his large intestine was severely damaged and at risk of rupturing.
“My entire large intestine had turned to pus and was about to explode,” the actor writes. “Had they not cut me open that morning, it would have ruptured, and I would have d**d immediately of sepsis.”
The emergency forced doctors to perform a total colectomy, removing his entire large intestine.
They also created an abdominal opening to divert waste into an ostomy bag.
While Manganiello was under anesthesia, his then-wife, Sofía Vergara, was asked to authorize the procedure.
He writes that she “made the brutal but lifesaving decision to allow my entire large intestine to be removed and a hole to be cut into my abdomen to divert my small intestine” into the bag.
The operation saved Joe’s life, but the scars left by the surgery, including one below his belly button, looked as though he had been “split open with a survival knife.”
He also describes the “golf ball-sized hole” in his abdominal wall where doctors brought the end of his small intestine through to connect it to the ostomy bag.
In exclusive memoir excerpts, the 49-year-old star opens up about the painful reality of recovering with an ostomy bag
“Adjusting to life without a large intestine was like waking up in someone else’s body,” Manganiello writes.
Without a colon to store waste, his digestive system could empty into the bag soon after he ate, making it difficult to predict when he would need to change it.
As he tried to regain the weight he had lost, he ate throughout the day, keeping his digestive system working around the clock.
Moreover, after spending his entire life sleeping on his stomach, he was forced to lie on his left side to avoid disturbing the bag’s seal.
He said leaks sometimes forced him to get out of bed in the middle of the night to clean himself and dispose of the waste, hoping he wouldn't wake Vergara.
“This had resulted in several nervous breakdowns during my first few weeks back home,” he recalls.
Manganiello also describes waking up gasping for air, drenched in sweat, and struggling with the physical consequences of losing so much muscle mass.
As Joe began recovering from surgery, his agent called with an unexpected opportunity: Ben Affleck wanted to discuss casting him as Deathstroke in a planned Batman film.
Joe says a major acting opportunity gave him an unexpected reason to fight his way back
The offer came when the actor was still physically fragile and had no clear timeline for recovery, leaving Vergara alarmed.
“She’d watched me transform from the strongest man she’d ever known to a skeleton who could barely move on his own,” Manganiello writes.
He adds that she had been “preparing for me to d*e” and was “clearly, deeply traumatized by her fear of my impending abandonment via d**th.”
Despite her concerns, the actor saw the opportunity as a reason to imagine a future beyond his illness.
“I just got offered the biggest role of my life,” he recalls telling her. “‘Are you insane?’ she shouted at me. ‘You can’t do this movie!’”
“It was just the carrot I needed dangled in front of me, the one that would lead me out of this nightmare that had become my life,” he writes.
The actor also recounts the difficulties of hiding his condition during costume fittings and while preparing for a long-haul flight with his ostomy bag.
His candid admission also offers a glimpse into the emotional strain his illness put on his marriage to the Modern Family star.
Joe writes that he struggled with the way their relationship changed during his illness, saying he hated “the pity I saw in Sofia’s eyes when she looked at me now.”
He recalls that when they first met, she looked at him with pride, adding, “I would have gone to war and taken over the world for that look.”
But their relationship had eventually become “devoid of any emotionality whatsoever.”
He alleges that Vergara grew distant during his recovery and refused to hug him even when he asked for affection.
Manganiello also makes bombshell revelations about his divorce from Sofía Vergara after seven years of marriage
The actor also describes how adopting his Chihuahua, Bubbles, in 2019 gave him a renewed sense of purpose, writing, “I went from being the patient to the caretaker.”
Manganiello says he included details about the breakdown of his marriage because he wanted to correct what he considered an inaccurate public narrative.
“There were things said and printed about me that were false,” he says.
He maintains that the memoir is primarily about his personal journey and recovery, rather than an attempt to revisit the divorce for its own sake.
The couple announced their separation in July 2023 after seven years of marriage, and their divorce was finalized in 2024.
Sofía previously said that differences over having children contributed to the split, while Manganiello has disputed the idea that his desire to become a father was the central reason their marriage ended.
The memoir, scheduled for release on Tuesday, October 13, revisits both the medical crisis and the strain it placed on his high-profile marriage to Sofía, which ultimately ended in divorce.
“Joe, so happy you're doing better. I'm so sorry you had to go through such a terrible health situation,” one fan wrote
