10 February 2016
Newsdesk
Joe Manganiello and Sofia Vergara's relationship was outed because they were so desperate for fried chicken.
The pair was first romantically linked back in July 2014. While they did their best to keep their pairing under wraps, Joe has revealed it was a desperate attempt to get some of New Orleans' famous chicken that meant they went public.
"I found this place that was open on a Sunday afternoon, we went there about 1.30," Joe explained during an interview on The Late Late Show with James Corden on Tuesday night (09Feb16). "I went in and said can we get a table and they said, 'Honey, we're closing in half an hour, there's no way.' I said, I'll pay you whatever, can you box up some chicken and I'll take it out? She said they couldn't do that and then Sofia comes in.
"I had been somewhat incognito until then and Sofia starts going (Colombian accent) 'Please we want the chicken, please just give us the chicken'. And then this waitress walks past and goes, 'I don't care who you are Sofia Vergara, you ain't getting any chicken!'
"So this alerts another waitress who looks over going, 'Wait, what?' Then she looks over and goes, 'Oh my God, it's Gloria (from Modern Family)!' It's Gloria and the werewolf (Joe's True Blood character)! She started screaming and then everyone's phones came out - suddenly they are filming, there's flashbulbs going off. I looked at her (Sofia) like, the gig is up, they're going to find out."
The revelation of their romance didn't hurt the couple, however, as they married in November 2015.
Joe also revealed his surname can cause some issues for people who don't know how to pronounce it, and it led to a particularly funny incident when he hosted WWE's Monday Night Raw with his Sabotage co-star Arnold Schwarzenegger and former pro wrestler Hulk Hogan.
"We were rehearsing what we were going to do backstage and Hogan would turn to me and say, 'Alright brother, one more time - how do you say your name?' And I would say, 'It's (spells phonetically) Mang-a-nello'. And he'd go, 'Mange-anello, got it." I'd correct him and then 20 minutes later, 'Alright brother, one more time'. Fast forward to we're about to go out live to millions of people at home and tens of thousands of people at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, they play the Hulk Hogan music, he gets down, slaps hands, goes into the ring and says, 'I'd like to bring out a good friend of mine, Joe Mange-a-leo."
"Backstage after we'd finished, Hogan was being interviewed, and he broke off the interview, grabbed the microphone from the woman and said, 'Listen, I don't care what anybody calls him from now on, because to me brother, he's Joe Mania!"
