In a new memoir, Joe Manganiello is getting candid about the condition that nearly killed him and the measures he took in search of healing.
The upcoming book, “Bloodlines,” which hits bookstores and online retailers Oct. 13, follows Manganiello’s career in Hollywood from “True Blood” werewolf to “Magic Mike” hunk, his seven-year marriage and subsequent divorce from “Modern Family” star Sofía Vergara and his battle with a mystery autoimmune condition that he says nearly killed him.
The 2010s were off to a stellar start for Manganiello. He was landing notable parts in buzzy projects and fell in love with television’s Colombian Jessica Rabbit, but shortly after the couple said “I do,” the actor’s rise abruptly switched course because of health issues that left doctors stumped.
Adam Rodriguez, onstage from left, Kevin Nash, Channing Tatum, Matt Bomer and Joe Manganiello in “Magic Mike.”
(Warner Bros. Pictures)
“I was getting sicker and sicker,” he told People. Manganiello detailed debilitating abdominal pain, fevers, rashes, headaches, fatigue and ulcers in his digestive tract that caused bleeding and led to countless colonoscopies. In 2016, he was rolled into an emergency “major organ amputation” in which doctors removed a portion of his intestines and sent him home 60 pounds lighter than his normal weight, with a colostomy bag in tow.
“It happened to me, and it’s the truth, and I have all the scars to prove it,” Manganiello told the outlet. Doctors attempted to treat the actor with prescriptions used for patients with Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis, but nothing worked. An autoimmune disease seemed to be the culprit, he said, but such “conditions are a dumping ground for things [doctors] don’t understand. They start running you through this gauntlet of drugs.”
Manganiello said that, as a result of the illness, his marriage fell apart, he gave away his gun to protect himself from suicidal impulses, and he took in an itty-bitty Chihuahua named Bubbles.
He also started to pursue alternative treatment, which included a trip to Cuba, where he licked the pituitary gland in a goat’s skull, an esoteric ritual used to attempt a factory reset on a person’s immune system. When that didn’t cure him, he turned to a Santa Monica shaman who believed generational trauma caused the actor’s ailments.
“Whatever chains there were to the past suffering of my ancestors, they were completely broken,” he said. “There’s not an ounce of fear in me about moving forward with my life.”
Manganiello revealed he’s since had reconstructive surgery on his digestive tract and is seemingly cured.
“I can’t believe I’m alive,” he said. “I feel like I was reborn.”
