In his new memoir, Joe Manganiello candidly describes the illness that nearly killed him and the measures he took to recover.
The book, “Bloodlines,” due out Oct. 13 at bookstores and online retailers, chronicles Manganiello’s career in Hollywood from “True Blood” werewolf to “Magic Mike” hunk, his seven-year marriage and subsequent divorce from “Modern Family” star Sofia Vergara, and his battle with a mysterious autoimmune disease that he says nearly killed him.
The 2010s were off to a great start for Manganiello. He was taking on major roles in popular projects and fell in love with TV’s Colombian Jessica Rabbit, but shortly after the couple said “I do”, the actor’s rise suddenly took a turn due to health problems that baffled doctors.
Adam Rodriguez, on stage from left to right, Kevin Nash, Channing Tatum, Matt Bomer and Joe Manganiello in “Magic Mike.”
(Warner Bros. Pictures)
“I was getting sicker and sicker,” she told People. Manganiello detailed debilitating abdominal pain, fever, rash, headache, fatigue and ulcers that caused bleeding in the digestive tract and led to countless colonoscopies. He underwent an emergency “major organ amputation” in 2016, and doctors removed part of his intestines and sent him home with a colostomy bag, 60 pounds lighter than his normal weight.
“This happened to me and it’s real and I have all the scars to prove it,” Manganiello told the press. Doctors tried to treat the actor with prescriptions for Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis patients, but nothing worked. The culprit appears to be an autoimmune disease, he said, but such conditions are a dumping ground for some things. [doctors] I don’t understand you. They start taking you through this drug struggle.
Manganiello said his marriage broke down due to illness, so he gave up his gun to protect himself from suicidal urges and took in a tiny Chihuahua named Bubbles.
He also began pursuing alternative therapy, which included a trip to Cuba where a goat licked the pituitary gland in his skull, an esoteric ritual used to reset a person’s immune system to factory settings. When that didn’t cure him, he consulted a Santa Monica shaman who believed intergenerational trauma was causing the actor’s ailments.
“Whatever chains my ancestors had in their past suffering, they have been completely broken,” he said. “I don’t have an ounce of fear in me about moving forward in my life.”
Manganiello revealed that he has since undergone reconstructive surgery on his digestive system and has seemingly recovered.
“I can’t believe I’m alive,” he said. “It’s like I was born again.”