Sofía Vergara Responds After Joe Manganiello Says Reason for Divorce Is 'Not True'

After the America's Got Talent star previously said the couple's divorce after nine years of marriage stemmed in large part from her not wanting to be an "old mom," Manganiello shot down the claims, and now, Vergara is responding.

"At the end of the day, you never even know if that's what he said for real," she explained to Variety in a profile published August 14. "I've read a lot of things that I've said that I'm like, 'Huh?' What am I gonna do, call him? I don't know if he even said that."

Opening up about the reason for her split from Manganiello with Spanish newspaper, El País, Vergara told the outlet in January, "My marriage broke up because my husband was younger; he wanted to have kids and I didn't want to be an old mom," according to a translation.

"I feel it's not fair to the baby. I respect whoever does it, but that's not for me anymore," she continued.

"I had a son at 19, who is now 32," Vergara added, referring to her son Manolo, whom she shares with her ex-husband Joe Gonzalez. "And I'm ready to be a grandmother, not a mother. So, if love comes along, he has to come with [his own] children."

As for Manganiello, he had a different recollection of events, telling Men's Journal in July, "That’s simply not true. 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 okay.' 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."

"That wasn't inevitably why everything ended. It's because two people grew apart, and sometimes that happens."

Still, the 52-year-old Modern Family alum stands by what she said, and even called the former couple's disagreement over children, "empowering."

"There's things in life that might sound like good ideas, but they're not," Vergara told People in May. "I was a mother already. I know what it means to be a good mother or to try to be the best mother that you can, and that takes a lot of sacrifices, takes a lot of energy."

While Manganiello pushed back on Vergara's claims, the Magic Mike star, who is currently dating Caitlin O'Connor, he did say that he's open to becoming a father.

"It's something that's definitely on the docket," he said on the Podcrushed podcast last month. "At some point."

Vergara and Manganiello called it quits in July 2023 after seven years of marriage, with the Griselda star moving on with boyfriend, Dr. Justin Saliman.