Joe Manganiello Reveals Health Crisis Interrupted Deathstroke Casting Call

Joe Manganiello has finally opened up about a secret health battle that nearly took his life over seven long years. He sat down with Gayle King on CBS Mornings to discuss the struggle and share details from his newly released memoir, Bloodlines. During the interview, the actor revealed he had been offered the role of Deathstroke in Ben Affleck's canceled Batman movie. Manganiello told King that while this job offer came through, he was simultaneously dying. The call for the movie arrived in 2016, just about a month after he collapsed on another film set and left the hospital.

After roughly a year of feeling mystery symptoms, Manganiello spent two straight months inside a hospital bed. Doctors eventually had to remove his entire large intestine to save him. He described how they split him open because his organ had turned into pus and was ready to explode. The surgery left him with an ostomy bag. In the wake of that brutal procedure, he lost sixty pounds in only two weeks. He could not walk, his eye went cross-eyed, he lost his voice, and five catheters were attached to him.

Manganiello explained that once released from the hospital, he was trying to regain weight when the call regarding Affleck arrived. At that time, he was still married to Sofia Vergara. She became next of kin since doctors needed someone to decide while he lay unconscious. Manganiello stated she chose the right option, which bought him more time. He admitted the surgery did not solve the underlying problem because doctors had no idea what caused it or how to treat it. King replied by telling him they had to credit her for saving his life and making that difficult decision.

The memoir notes that this mystery illness put a serious strain on his marriage to Vergara. The couple married in 2015 but announced their separation in 2023, with the divorce finalized later that year. Manganiello described the pain as a flood in his life where you cannot predict how it will affect people. It lasted seven years and many did not know about it. He was living in secret while only closest friends knew what happened.

Gayle King brought up a recent post by Vergara's son, Manolo Gonzalez Vergara, who is thirty-five years old. The younger man shared words describing a narcissistic man on Monday, and his mother liked that post. King suggested the message implied it was terrible what happened to Manganiello but blamed him for being a narcissist. She asked what anyone would say to such an accusation. Manganiello appeared shocked before responding that anybody claiming this should read the book first. He insisted the story is not about that but rather about the suffering he endured through his illness. Bloodlines: A Memoir was released on October 13.