Sofía Vergara & Joe Manganiello Divorced Over Disagreement About Kids

When Sofía Vergara and Joe Manganiello announced that they were getting a divorce in July 2023, their fans were shocked and dismayed. The couple did not share the reason behind their decision to part ways after seven years of marriage at the time, but now the Modern Family star is opening up about the reason behind the split. She simply didn’t want to have more children, while the Magic Mike star wanted to be a dad.

Vergara, who is 51 years old, spoke to El Pais about her divorce from 47-year-old Manganiello recently and got refreshingly candid about the issues that caused it. “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 told the outlet. Vergara went on to note that, while Manganiello does not have children of his own, “I had a son at 19, who is now 32, and I’m ready to be a grandmother, not a mother,” referring to son Manolo Gonzales Vergara, who she shares with her first husband, Joe Gonzalez.

Vergara added that she “respect[s]” those who wish to welcome children later in life, the path is just “not for [her] anymore,” noting that in her case she feels it is “not fair to the baby.”

It’s also not fair to Vergara, who has a plan that feels more “natural” to her. “I’m almost in menopause; it’s the natural way of things,” she told El Pais. “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.”

Even before marrying Manganiello, Vergara made it clear that she did not want to bring more children into the world. She won a court case back in 2017 that prevented ex-boyfriend Nick Loeb from using her frozen embryos to welcome another child when she was in the early stages of her new marriage to Manganiello.

Since the couple’s separation last July, they have both gone on to date other people. It was clearly a “difficult decision,” as they told Page Six in a statement at the time, and they’re both doing their best to “navigate this new phase of their lives.” While Manganiello’s new phase could well include babies, Vergara’s will not. Unless those babies are grandchildren, of course.