Joe Manganiello has opened up about a private health battle he kept secret for nearly a decade. Ahead of his upcoming memoir Bloodlines, the 49-year-old actor revealed he battled a “cascade of autoimmune-related illnesses” that affected his skin, thyroid, eyes, lungs, and digestive system.
Joe Manganiello reveals health procedures ‘mutilated’ his body
The True Blood star, known for his role as Alcide Herveaux, revealed on Instagram that he spent much of the past decade suffering in silence as he battled a “deadly mystery illness.” He said, as quoted by Us Weekly, “Other than a very small circle of family and friends, I hid it from the rest of the world, and until recently hadn’t really shared what I’d gone through.”
Manganiello said he consulted “the best doctors in the world,” but they couldn’t explain the cause of his illness. “All of their attempts to treat it with high-powered biologic drugs only exacerbated my symptoms and then unlocked a host of brutal side effects that have [been] plaguing me for years. In attempts to buy myself time, I underwent very serious operations and procedures that mutilated parts of my body and left me so weak at times that I couldn’t stand up or walk. I spent months and months heavily medicated while dealing with excruciating bouts of chronic pain,” he detailed.
He went on to describe his upcoming memoir, which will be out on October 13, saying it documents his 10-year search for answers and explores both his family history and unexpected discoveries. Manganiello added that he began to question whether what happened to him was truly random.
He said that to heal, his mind, body, and spirit all had to align, and he needed to become open to “radical and unorthodox techniques and ideas” that lay beyond the boundaries of Western medicine.
Manganiello, who was married to Sofia Vergara at the time before they split in 2024, said he hopes his book will offer readers “hope” and help them “connect dots” in ways he couldn’t at the start of his own struggles. He added that if anyone is going through similar challenges, he hopes they find something meaningful in his story.
He and Sofía Vergara announced their divorce in July 2023 after seven years of marriage. The Modern Family alum said in January 2024 that the split came down to differing views on having children, noting that her then-husband wanted kids and she didn’t want to be “an old mom.” Manganiello is now engaged to actress Caitlin O’Connor, with the news revealed on Instagram in October 2025.
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