Joe Manganiello denies he split with Sofia Vergara because he wanted kids and she didn't

Joe Manganiello has denied he split with Sofia Vergara because he wanted kids and she didn't.

The True Blood star, 47, has spoken for the first time about his divorce from ex-wife Sofia Vergara. The pair split in July 2023 after seven years of marriage.

In January, Sofia, 52, said their marriage "broke up because my husband was younger," adding, "He wanted to have kids and I didn't want to be an old mom."

Now Joe has hit back at Sofia's comments saying they're "simply not true."

"There's been a lot said in the press about me wanting a family," he told Men's Journal. "We did try to have a family for the first year and a half. And we had a huge conversation right out of the gate during the first month we dated. I said, 'If you're done with kids, then I understand. Just tell me, and I'll know what this is, and that's OK.' But that wasn't the case with her. And I swore to her that I would never leave if it didn't work out. And I didn't."

He admitted that he did want to have kids but that "wasn't inevitably why everything ended. It's because two people grew apart, and sometimes that happens."

"To be painted as if I had some sort of midlife crisis, and after nine years, turned to somebody and gave them an ultimatum of, 'Do this potentially unhealthy thing to your body, or else I'm gone?' That's never who I was."

Since splitting with Sofia, Joe has started dating 34-year-old actress Caitlin O'Connor.