Sofía Vergara and Joe Manganiello’s divorce has shocked many. After all, seven years of marriage between two huge Hollywood stars equals nearly a lifetime in layman’s years.
Despite their relatively lengthy union and exorbitant wealth, high-profile divorce attorney Frederic J. Siegel — who is not representing either party and has no affiliation with the case — tells Pvnew that the duo will likely have a clean break financially.
Before she married the “Magic Mike” star in November 2015, Vergara revealed that the two were signing a prenuptial agreement, which typically outlines how a couple’s finances and assets will be handled should they divorce later on.
“He said, ‘Do whatever you want. I’ll sign whatever you want,'” the actress, 51, told Howard Stern that May.
Siegel theorizes that Vergara and Manganiello’s marital contract “probably had what is called a walkaway.”
“She keeps what she has and what she earns, and he keeps what he has and what he’s earned,” Siegel, the founding member of family law firm Siegel, Colin & Kaufman, explains. “So with a prenup — and without kids [together] — it becomes a much simpler case.”
(Vergara shares 31-year-old son Manolo with ex-husband Joe Gonzalez.)
As for marital property, Vergara and the “True Blood” star moved into a shared home in May 2015, six months before they said “I do.” According to TMZ, she’s the one who purchased the seven-bedroom, 11,000-square-foot Beverly Hills pad for $10.6 million.
Last July, the outlet reported that the pair put the fully renovated estate — equipped with a chef’s kitchen, gym, movie theater and pool with a spa — on the market for a staggering $19.6 million.
The then-couple was simultaneously building a bigger and better home in the same area, per TMZ.
It’s unclear whether their first house ever sold, but we’ve reached out to Barry Peele of Sotheby’s International Realty, who held the initial listing, for comment.
It’s also unclear whether the former lovers ever moved into their under-construction second residence, but in the event it’s in both of their names and presumably not mentioned in the prenup, that’s where things could get sticky.
“My belief is that they probably are at a more advanced stage [in their divorce] than people would think, because usually when people make the announcement like they made yesterday, they’ve already done some of the preliminary work,” Siegel tells us.
“It doesn’t look like it’s messy — yet,” he adds. “It’s a good sign when people issue the kind of statement that they did, saying that they wanted to do this amicably, but it doesn’t always work out that way.”
Siegel, a fellow of both the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and the International Academy of Family Lawyers, also cautions that A-list celebrities tend to include a confidentiality provision in their prenups, which forces the parties, their attorneys and their accountants to keep all information private.
“I think both [Vergara and Manganiello] recognize the fact that if it’s a bad divorce, their careers can be put in jeopardy,” he tells us. “It really doesn’t serve anybody. They’ve got very nice careers. They don’t want to be airing their dirty laundry in public.”
What makes this split particularly interesting is that Vergara was named by Forbes as the world’s highest paid actress in October 2020.
The outlet reported that the Colombia native earned a whopping $500,000 per episode of “Modern Family,” which ran for 11 seasons from September 2009 to April 2020.
Upon her exit from the popular sitcom, she joined “America’s Got Talent” as a judge, which pays her at least $10 million each season, per Forbes.
She’s also ventured into the land of endorsement and licensing deals, which includes a line of size-inclusive jeans at Walmart and furniture at Rooms To Go.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Vergara is worth an estimated $180 million, while Manganiello, 46 — who’s had a consistent and successful acting career for nearly 25 years — has an estimated net worth of $40 million.
Despite the fact that Vergara is reportedly worth four and half times as much as her estranged husband, Siegel does not foresee the “Spider-Man” actor making alimony an issue.
Pvnew broke the news on Monday that Vergara and Manganiello were going their separate ways.
“We have made the difficult decision to divorce,” they told us in a statement.
“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.”
