Joe Manganiello is getting ready to tell his story.
Over the past few years, the True Blood actor’s life has changed drastically. As we know, Joe and Sofía Vergara separated in July 2023 after nearly a decade of marriage. And the following April, they finalized their divorce. But beyond the heartbreak of their breakup, Joe was secretly fighting another battle behind the scenes: autoimmune diseases.
On Tuesday, the Magic Mike star announced his upcoming memoir Bloodlines, which is set to hit bookshelves on October 13. And in an interview with People on Tuesday, he dished shocking details of a “near-death” health crisis! According to the memoir’s official synopsis, Joe tells his story “marked by multiple near-death experiences, and medical crises that led him beyond medicine and into a remarkable, globe-spanning quest that revealed answers about his ancestry, inherited trauma and the deeper histories we carry.”
Whoa!
The synopsis went on to reveal Joe’s SEVEN-year battle kicked off with “a cascade of autoimmune-related illnesses” that targeted his skin, thyroid, eyes, lungs and digestive system. Holy s**t! Because of it, the actor suffered “chronic pain, a life-saving organ amputation, existential crisis and a prolonged fight for survival that left doctors with few answers and no clear explanation.”
An organ amputation?! That is so scary! But we’re so glad Joe has been able to push through it all!
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Since doctors had “few answers and no clear explanation,” Joe set off on his own healing journey through “shamans, pagan rituals, ancient myths, long-lost family records, and the rebirth of his own spirituality.”
The One Piece actor told the outlet:
“It was the most brutally difficult time of my life, one I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, but also my greatest adventure. I hope that what I went through on this journey can give readers hope that answers and healing may lie for them on the other side of whatever they are fighting through.”
He went on to reveal writing his book gave him “the gift of perspective,” which allowed him to see “my suffering was a cocoon from which I would emerge forever changed.”
How powerful!
Publisher Simon & Schuster called the 49-year-old’s story “deeply personal and emotionally expansive” as it takes on “illness, inheritance, masculinity, faith, ambition, and the identities we build to endure. More than a memoir of medical crisis, it is a searching account of what happens when the life you have constructed can no longer contain the truth of what you carry.”
As of now, the specific autoimmune diseases Joe faced have not been revealed.
Will you be checking out Bloodlines when it drops in October? Let us know in the comments down below!
[Images via Joe Manganiello/Instagram & MEGA/WENN]
