Joe Manganiello details near-fatal illness in memoir Bloodlines
Joe Manganiello says he nearly died from an autoimmune disease that destroyed his intestines, in a memoir due on 13 October.
The book is titled Bloodlines: A Memoir and will be published by Avid Reader Press, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Manganiello describes it as an account of a near decade-long health crisis. It was first announced in a People exclusive in June, according to People.
Manganiello is known to television viewers as Alcide in HBO’s True Blood and to film audiences as Big Dick Richie in the Magic Mike films, according to The Hollywood Reporter. People magazine named him Hollywood’s Hottest Bachelor in 2014. A year later he wed Modern Family star Sofia Vergara, now his ex.
The crisis began in 2016. Manganiello collapsed in pain on the set of Six in Wilmington, North Carolina, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Doctors later found an autoimmune disease that attacked his thyroid and ravaged his intestines. His weight fell from 235 pounds to 176 pounds during an extended hospital stay.
He writes about a “Night in Hell” in which rectal bleeding left his bathroom floor, walls, sink and tile grout stained red, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Doctors told him his entire large intestine had turned to pus and was about to explode. Without emergency surgery, it would have ruptured and killed him through sepsis, a life-threatening response to infection.
Vergara, then his wife and next of kin, authorised surgeons to remove his entire large intestine and divert his small intestine into an ostomy bag, according to The Hollywood Reporter. An ostomy bag is a pouch worn outside the body to collect waste after bowel surgery. Manganiello describes the ordeal as a seven-year medical odyssey, according to Star Magazine.
The illness unfolded as his film career was expanding. Ben Affleck offered him the role of Deathstroke in a Batman film Affleck was writing, directing and starring in, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The casting was confirmed in September 2016, with Manganiello set to play the villain opposite Affleck, according to ABC News.
For readers, this means the memoir covers both hospital wards and film sets. Bloodlines was available for pre-order on Amazon, according to his publisher announcement shared on Facebook. It will be released in hardcover, Kindle and audiobook formats, with the audiobook narrated by Manganiello himself, according to Facebook. It was included on The New York Times’ “What to Read” list ahead of publication, according to a post shared on X.
