Strange Facts About Sofia Vergara And Joe Manganiello's Marriage

Joe Manganiello and Sofia Vergara are two of the most beautiful people on the whole darn planet, and for the most part, their relationship is hashtag-goals. 

In November 2019, the happy couple celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary. The Modern Family star took to Instagram with a sweet snapshot of the two to mark the occasion, captioned with: "Happy [Anniversary] mi amor!!!" For his part, Manganiello previously had this to say about their fairy tale romance: "The biggest adjustment in marriage? Coming to grips with the idea that someone who is not related to you could possibly love you that much. She was it for me," the Justice League actor told Cigar Aficionado magazine in 2018 (via People). "People say things like, 'Marriage and relationships are work.' But it's not. Life is hard. Having somebody to help you deal with it is the greatest thing that ever happened."

Okay, raise your hand if you're also swooning! Still, all couples — even couples who are the most physically flawless specimens of humanity ever to walk the earth — have their little quirks, peculiarities, and offbeat moments. And yes, that includes the Manganiello-Vergara duo. Here are a few of the stranger things about their otherwise perfect union.

Sofia Vergara was still engaged to former fiancé Nick Loeb when Joe Manganiello topped People's list of Hollywood's most eligible bachelors, which meant that the True Blood alum was talking exclusively in aspirational terms when he named her in an interview as the living embodiment of his ideal woman. The two had never met — and Manganiello couldn't have had the faintest idea that he'd one day be married to his celebrity crush when he responded to a question from People about what his perfect lady would look like.

"Girls that do squats. I love a butt," the actor said. "Sofia Vergara, that's it. She's got that Latin thing going. She's got the butt, she's got curves, she's got a beautiful face, beautiful hair, just gorgeous. And she's feisty!"

As for Vergara's early thoughts on her man after they finally got together? "He's a great guy," she gushed on The Ellen DeGeneres Show back in 2015. "Super fun, super normal, and we clicked. He's super easy to hang out with."

We already know, thanks to his earlier comments, that Joe Manganiello loves a butt. However, there's also photographic evidence of his early fascination with Sofia Vergara's butt in particular, in the form of a picture taken by a sharp-eyed photographer at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in 2014 — back when Vergara was still engaged to American businessman Nick Loeb.

If you take a look at the snap in question: That's Modern Family actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson on the left, captured in the middle of saying something; that's Vergara on the right, reacting to her co-star's comments; and that, of course, is Manganiello lurking nearly out of the frame on the far right, feasting his eyes on his future wife's, er, assets. Shameless! 

According to a source cited by Us Weekly shortly after Vergara and Manganiello began dating, this event marked "the first time Sofia and Joe met." If they hadn't ended up together, that moment could easily be topping a list of awkward celebrity photobombs. Fortunately, this celeb pairing are now married, and therefore it's cute and not weird.

In a world where most celebrity relationships simmer quietly behind the scenes for months on end, Joe Manganiello and Sofia Vergara became an item at warp speed. A mere few weeks passed between their first meeting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in 2014 and their emergence on the scene as a couple later that year — an especially remarkable feat considering the fact that the Modern Family starlet was engaged to someone else at the start of that timeline. How did everything happen so fast? Turns out, Manganiello had a little help from the media to get a foot in the door.

"I was on a press tour when I found out Sofia was single," he told Cosmopolitan UK in 2017. "My friend is an editor and told me she was about to make the announcement." The rest, as they say, is history; by the time Vergara's next movie came out, they were totes official.

By the time Sofia Vergara ended her engagement with fiancé Nick Loeb in 2014, Joe Manganiello's massive crush on her was common knowledge amongst their mutual friends — and she'd been single for all of five minutes before he made his move.

"I got her number from Jesse Tyler Ferguson [Vergara's Modern Family co-star]," Manganiello explained to News.com.au. "And I called her the next day but she was filming Hot Pursuit in New Orleans." The actor, of course, was in Los Angeles at the time, so he waited patiently until she was finished shooting her new film to schedule a rendezvous.

...Just kidding. Actually, he hopped on a plane immediately, and the rest is history: "So I flew out there and took her out on a date. She's blamed me ever since for ruining her life because she was supposed to be single, but I didn't let that happen. And here we are."

What does Sofia Vergara put on when she wants to nail down a commitment from the man of her dreams? A little spritz of perfume ... and nothing else. Nada. Zip. If you know what we're saying.

"Perfume. That's all I wear, perfume. That's how I got Joe Manganiello to be in love with me," she told Meredith Vieira in an interview to promote her new line of fragrances in 2014 (via the Daily Mail). And if you think she was just kidding, take note: Vergara said virtually the same exact thing during an appearance on Good Morning America, per E! News, which means that there are now two independent media outlets which can confirm that Joe Manganiello is a veritable bloodhound for hotness. "He smelled me and he couldn't help himself," she told the morning show. "That's all you need if you want Joe!"

Even Manganiello would be the first to admit this. "I'm big into smell," the former True Blood star told People prior to him and Vergara getting together. "It's funny I got cast as a werewolf. There's something about the smell on that part of a woman's neck where it meets the jaw, ahhhh! It's heaven."

Where some folks institute a mandatory, two-year probationary dating period before they'll even consider a permanent commitment, these two lovebirds took a mere six months to put a ring on it. Half a year after their first date in New Orleans, Joe Manganiello got down on one knee in Hawaii and popped the question — although he had to go with his backup plan when it came to the location of the proposal. 

"I had to do it indoors because the island was infested with paparazzi," he told Haute Living in 2015. "I wanted to do it on the beach but I couldn't; I had to do it inside, which was fine." (Considering that the end result was being engaged to Sofia Vergara? Yeah, "fine" seems like a good descriptor.) Manganiello added, "I proposed to her on one knee in Spanish with the sun going down. It was awesome."

Awesome is more like it! As for their undeniable whirlwind romance, the actor reasoned to the publication, "When you know, you know, and we knew right away — like, very quickly."

Many stars who want to keep their nuptials private opt for a super-small, super-intimate, super-secret ceremony that they only announce to the world after it's already happened. But Joe Manganiello and Sofia Vergara somehow managed to accomplish the impossible: a massive, 400-person wedding with zero unauthorized leaks. Their secret to keeping it on the DL despite their giant guest list? Simple: every single person in attendance at the Palm Beach, Fla. affair reportedly had to sign a confidentiality agreement, according to E! News.

"I want a wedding where the guests are going to have fun," Vergara explained to Martha Stewart Weddings (via E! News), adding, "It's about creating memories that you're always going to cherish. That's what's important." Despite keeping their big day on the down low, Manganiello has been more than happy to gush about the future of his and Vergara's relationship, telling Haute Living prior to their wedding: "On a personal level, I can't wait to get married and start a family ... It's something that we talked about very early on."

Their first stop after tying the knot? A gorgeous honeymoon at the Parrot Cay Resort in Turks and Caicos, which Vergara was more than happy to document on Instagram.

Whatever the first words that come to mind when you look at Joe Manganiello, we're guessing they're not "art collector." (Actually, we're guessing they're not words at all; more like a series grunts followed by several minutes of open-mouthed panting.) But as it turns out, the actor is quite the art aficionado — and when it came to decking the walls at his and Sofia Vergara's shared home, he was happy to take the lead.

"I have always made it a habit of going to art galleries and openings," Manganiello told People in 2017. "Some of my friends are some of the biggest artists working today and others have made careers of collecting and dealing art. So when it came time to decorating the new house, along with the works I had collected over the years, I had new paintings [and] works commissioned."

Considering the stunning inside look the couple gave of their new home to Architectural Digest in 2016, we'd say this multi-talented star did way more than alright when it came to the decor.

...Or if not at all times, at least while she's in their home gym. Sofia Vergara apparently bogarted a life-sized promotional cutout of her husband from one of the Magic Mike films to use as fitspiration, setting it up in the perfect spot to keep an eye on her while she does cardio. 

"Who wouldnt get motivated with that guy in the back staring at u like that hahahhha!!!!" the Colombian-American actress wrote on her Instagram back in 2015. And y'know what? She's not wrong. Nothing makes you leg out that last mile like the sight of Big D**k Richie creeping on you from behind a treadmill. Try it.

But that's not to say that a showbiz couple who stays fit together actually works out together. While opening up about her fitness routine to the Los Angeles Times a year later, Vergara revealed that she exercises separately from Manganiello because "the weights he lifts are too heavy." Noting that staying in shape is "part of [her] job," the TV star added, "I like to feel the best I can."

Some guys might celebrate their one-year wedding anniversary by bringing home flowers and a bottle of champagne — not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. Just know, gentlemen, that Joe Manganiello sees your flowers-and-champagne-game and he is not impressed; for his first anniversary with Sofia Vergara, he wrote her an actual book based on their real-life love story.

"It was about how we met, as well as our courting, and was about 40 pages long ... I love my wife a lot," he told Cosmopolitan UK in 2017. (Seems like an understatement.) Around that time, the actor told HOLA! USA, "We realized very early on that we each had to put the other person's happiness and wellbeing ahead of our own. Once you realize that kind of trust has manifested, you hang on for dear life."

We can hardly wait for their five-year wedding anniversary, by which time Manganiello will have outdone himself so many times over that there's nothing left to do but buy Vergara her own planet.

Because some celebrity gossip rags are (ahem) less ethical than others, Joe Manganiello and Sofia Vergara got to read all about about their supposed impending divorce in Star magazine — which claimed, falsely, back in 2017 that the couple was headed toward splitsville after an extramarital dalliance by Sofia in Rome. 

Both actors were understandably furious, taking to their respective Instagram accounts to deny the rumor; Sofia lambasted Star's editor "an idiot," writing in part, "If he is going to have my ring removed to created a 'fake' 'news' he should have made sure that he removed from social media all the other pictures of that award night in Rome where Im wearing it." Meanwhile, Manganiello suggested a boycott of the tabloid. "Big surprise everyone but Star created a fake story and then photo shopped my wife's engagement ring off of her finger in order to sell magazines," he wrote. "They are run by malicious trash. Do the world a favor and don't buy their garbage."

Before meeting Joe Manganiello, Sofia Vergara was in a volatile on-again, off-again romance with Nick Loeb. After Vergara and Loeb split in 2014, he took her to court over two frozen pre-embryos they created by during their relationship — which they reportedly agreed to leave alone, not bring to term, or destroy without the other's consent. 

In 2016, Loeb tried unsuccessfully to gain full custody of the embryos in California so he could have them implanted in a surrogate. Loeb then sued Vergara in Louisiana on behalf of the unborn embryos, alleging they couldn't access an inheritance granted to them in the state because ... they weren't born. Vergara responded by suing Loeb in California, seeking damages and an injunction to prevent him from using the embryos without her consent, per their original agreement. Vergara, through her attorney, also accused Loeb of using the embryo battle for fame, which several sources close to Loeb later seemed to confirm.

In October 2019, Loeb scored a minor win when a Los Angeles appellate court ordered Vergara  to fork over $80,000 in legal fees. However, Page Six reported around that time that a judge dismissed Loeb's Louisiana lawsuit "with prejudice" and questioned Loeb's residency in the Pelican State — but the battle may not be over, because Loeb's attorney vowed to appeal the decision.

As evidenced by their Insta snaps from their first-ever Thanksgiving as a married couple, Joe Manganiello and Sofia Vergara take the holiday pretty seriously. Pro tip: If you're ever invited for Thanksgiving dinner chez Manganiello-Vergara, you'd better come wearing your finest turkey-themed headgear, or you shan't get any pie. The festive hats even returned for Thanksgiving 2019 during a glamorous family and friends gathering hosted by the famous husband-wife duo, according to HOLA! USA.

Of course, it's no secret this married pair knows how to do any holiday or celebration right. From marking their five-year dating anniversary with a romantic trip to Positano, Italy in July 2019 to ringing in the New Year with friends at what the Daily Mail suspected to be their Bahamas vacation home, Manganiello and Vergara seem to be living their best lives as a team. As the actress captioned the latter snap, complete with two heart emojis, this married pair is "ready for 2020."