Actress Sofia Vergara and actor Joe Manganiello divorcing after 7 years of marriage

LOS ANGELES – Colombian-American actress Sofia Vergara and her husband, American actor Joe Manganiello, are separating after more than seven years of marriage.

“We have made the difficult decision to divorce,” the couple said in a statement to celebrity gossip website Page Six on Monday.

“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.”

News of their separation came after Vergara, who turned 51 on July 10, posted on social media several photos of her birthday trip to Italy with a group of friends.

Netizens noticed that the Modern Family (2009 to 2020) actress was not wearing her wedding ring. Her husband was also absent in the photos.

The couple had last posted photos of themselves together in June.

Manganiello, 46, also sparked speculation that something was off with his Instagram post on his wife’s birthday.

The actor posted a blurry throwback photo of himself and his wife with the caption: “Feliz Cumpleanos Sofia (“Happy birthday Sofia” in Spanish)!”

Fans said the birthday wish seemed “cold” compared with his previous birthday tributes. In 2022, he wrote: “Feliz Cumpleanos mi amor (Happy birthday my love)! I love you so much.”

Vergara, a judge on American talent show America’s Got Talent (2006 to present), met Manganiello through her Modern Family co-star Jesse Tyler Ferguson at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in 2014.

He proposed to her in December that year and they tied the knot in November 2015.

Between 1991 and 1993, Vergara was married to her high-school sweetheart Joe Gonzalez, with whom she has a 31-year-old son.

In June, Vergara and Manganiello put their seven-bedroom, 11-bathroom home in Beverly Hills up for sale for the second time in less than a year, with a reduced asking price of US$18 million (S$24 million).