Key Takeaways
- Joe Manganiello writes in his memoir Bloodlines that a Cuban shaman blamed his unexplained illness and intestinal problems on a curse allegedly arranged by one of Sofía Vergara’s exes.
- Manganiello suspected Vergara’s former fiancé Nick Loeb because of his New Orleans ties and considered traveling to Ecuador for the shaman’s cleansing and protection ritual.
- He also recalls rejecting a friend’s offer to abduct and assault Loeb during Vergara’s legal battle over their frozen pre-embryos, saying his spiritual beliefs stopped him from retaliating.
Joe Manganiello was already struggling through a frightening, unexplained illness when a phone call sent the situation in an entirely different direction. In his new memoir, Bloodlines, the actor says a shaman told him that an ex of his then-wife, Sofía Vergara, had put a curse on him because he was still in love with her.
The shaman, who was in Cuba, allegedly knew Manganiello was sick and dealing with intestinal problems before the actor explained why he was calling. That alone rattled him.
“There were members of my close family who didn’t know any of that, let alone some random guy on the phone,” Manganiello writes, according to Entertainment Weekly. He says he turned to Vergara with a look “equal parts fear, anger, and disbelief.”
Then came the supposed answer: someone from Vergara’s past had arranged for the curse in New Orleans, according to Manganiello’s recollection. The shaman reportedly said Manganiello needed cleansing and protection and offered to meet him in Ecuador because he couldn't travel to the United States.
Manganiello says he began mentally running through Vergara’s former relationships before landing on businessman Nick Loeb, her ex-fiancé. Vergara and Loeb split in May 2014, and she began dating Manganiello weeks later. The actor writes that Loeb’s connection to New Orleans—he attended Tulane University—made the shaman’s allegation feel even more unsettling.
“Why did the most insane thing I’d ever heard have to make so much f*cking sense?” Manganiello writes. He says he pulled out his phone and began searching for flights to Guayaquil, Ecuador.
Manganiello and Vergara married in 2015, separated in 2023 and finalized their divorce in 2024. During their relationship, Vergara also fought a years-long court battle with Loeb over frozen pre-embryos created while they were together. In 2021, a judge permanently barred Loeb from using the embryos to create a child without Vergara’s written consent.
Manganiello also writes about how intensely protective he became of Vergara during that period. He recalls a friend with private-security connections offering to have Loeb abducted and assaulted—an offer he says he did not accept.
“The spiritual part of me won out,” Manganiello writes, explaining that he worried about the consequences of retaliating.
Bloodlines is out now.
