Key Points
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Joe Manganiello detailed the tumultuous relationship with his father, Charles, in his Bloodlinesmemoir.
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The Magic Mike actor claimed he hasn’t spoken to his father in 13 years.
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“He never reached out in any way,” Joe wrote.
Joe Manganiello‘s has a tumultuous relationship with his father, Charles Manganiello.
“It’s been 13 years, and we haven’t spoken since,” Joe wrote in his Bloodlines memoir, published earlier this month. According to the actor, a comment he made in an interview led to the father and son cutting ties.
At the time, Manganiello was playing Stanley Kowalski — for “the third time” — in a production of A Streetcar Named Desireat the Yale Repertory Theatre. While his mom, Susan Manganiello, was in the crowd, Charles had skipped out.
“I called him, but his phone made a strange noise and wouldn’t let me leave a message,” Joe wrote. “I mentioned it to my mother at dinner before my show on opening night, and she reluctantly told me that he was upset about something I said in an interview about why I kept being cast as Stanley Kowalski.”
The True Blood star recalled telling a reporter “it was probably because I understood anger on a visceral level,” which allowed him to “delve to places that were most likely uncomfortable for the audience to go themselves.” When the reporter apparently pushed for a deeper explanation, Joe responded by saying: “It was because I had witnessed volatility growing up.”
Joe clarified that he chose his words “very carefully” and tried to give a “benign” answer. “I didn’t want to say anything specifically or say whom I witnessed exhibiting volatile behavior, and this was my attempt to walk a fine line between speaking my truth and not getting into specifics,” he added.
However, Charles read the interview and felt Joe was “speaking out of school” about their family. (Joe detailed the complicated relationship with his father throughout the book.)
“Rather than come to see my show, he changed his phone number and didn’t tell me. I never intended to hurt him. I called his new number and left a message, but he wouldn’t respond,” the actor wrote. “I then emailed him to apologize for any hurt I caused him, and what I received back was one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever read.”
Joe recounted the “heartbreaking” message from his father. Charles apparently called his son “a disappointment and a teenage girl.” Joe wrote that he “could never imagine” writing something like the message his dad wrote him.
Because of the email, their relationship became completely strained. Charles was the “only one” in Joe’s family who was not invited to his wedding to ex-wife Sofía Vergara. (Joe was married to Vergara from 2015 to 2024.)
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Joe further claimed that he never heard from his dad when he was “sick and dying in the hospital.” For several chapters in the book, the Magic Mikeactor details his seven-year battle with an autoimmune disorder.
“For years afterward while I was fighting for my life, he never came to see me the way I did for him,” Joe wrote. “He never called or wrote. He never reached out in any way.”
Bloodlinesis out now.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
