Actors Sofía Vergara and Joe Manganiello are calling it quits after seven years of marriage.
The couple shared the news with PageSix on Monday, stating: “We have made the difficult decision to divorce.”
“As two people that love and care for one another very much, we politely ask for respect of our privacy at this time as we navigate this new phase of our lives,” the brief statement concluded.
An unnamed source also told PageSix the couple had been “growing apart for a while now and are taking some distance from each other to contemplate their future.”
The Modern Family star married Manganiello, 46, in 2015 during a lavish ceremony in Palm Beach, Fla. Photos posted by Vergara showed the bride walking down the aisle under a canopy of flowers to wed the Magic Mike actor.
The pair dated for six months before getting engaged in December 2014.
Vergara, who is currently a judge on America’s Got Talent, is holidaying in Italy with friends to celebrate her 51st birthday — but fans were quick to notice that Manganiello was absent from the festivities.
Amid news of the divorce on Monday, Vergara posted photos of herself on a sunny patio in a blue one-piece swimsuit, notably without her wedding ring. The post has garnered more than 1.4 million likes.
On Vergara’s birthday on July 10, Manganiello posted a photo of him and the Colombian actress to his Instagram, with the simple caption: “Feliz Cumpleaños Sofía,” which means ‘happy birthday Sofía’ in Spanish.
At the time, the divorce had not been announced, but fans noticed something off about Manganiello’s birthday message.
“Joe, I hope you guys are ok, that was a very different (cold) happy birthday wish to your wife, (compared) to previous ones!” one user commented.
A source told PageSix that Vergara and her friends initially attempted to conceal the real reason Manganiello was not on vacation with his wife in Italy for her birthday.
“At the start of Sofia’s big birthday trip those close to her were explaining away Joe’s absence with the excuse that he was busy filming back on the East Coast; that excuse barely held up due to the writer’s strike, but once the actor’s strike took effect, he could have been on the first flight… and he quite clearly is not.
“So now no one out there with her is even attempting to pretend that it’s not over. It’s over. It’s done.”
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
