Joe Manganiello Reveals Secret Health Battle That Involves an Amputation

On the outside, Magic Mike star Joe Manganiello appears to be the epitome of health and fitness. However, in his new memoir, Bloodlines, he opens up about a nearly decade-long health battle that he kept secret from fans.

Joe suffers from a series of autoimmune-related illnesses that "attacked his skin, thyroid, eyes, lungs, and digestive system," according to a synopsis of his new book, which is due out in October 2026.

The True Blood actor also hinted at an amputation that has fans very worried.

"Joe Manganiello seemed to have it all: a soaring career, a new marriage, and what many considered the best physique in Hollywood," the official synopsis for the memoir read. "Then, without warning, his body began to fail him."

The synopsis continued, "A cascade of autoimmune-related illnesses attacked his skin, thyroid, eyes, lungs, and digestive system, plunging him into a seven-year battle, plagued by chronic pain, a life-saving organ amputation, existential crisis and a prolonged fight for survival that left doctors with few answers and no clear explanation."

Joe, who was previously married to Sofía Vergara, went on to explain how he sought to explore various methods to cure himself of his ailments, including "shamans, pagan rituals, ancient myths, long-lost family records, and the rebirth of his own spirituality."

The memoir, which hits bookshelves on October 13, 2026, was written to inspire readers who may be on their own spiritual or health journey.

"I hope that what I went through on this journey," Joe said, "can give readers hope that answers and healing may lie for them on the other side of whatever they are fighting through."

While seeking a remedy for his autoimmune disorders, Joe shares in his memoir that it brought him closer to his heritage and family.

"A search that led him deep into his own bloodline," the synopsis read, "to a survivor of the Armenian genocide, to ancestors shaped by violence and displacement and the hidden patterns shared by others living with chronic illness."

In 2023, Joe appeared in Finding Your Roots, where he learned more about his Armenian background and shared that his maternal great-grandmother, Terviz “Rose” Darakijan, survived the Armenian Genocide.

"The Turks came into her home in 1915 under the guise of World War I and tried to enact the genocide that they had begun,” he told host Henry Louis Gates Jr. “They shot her husband dead, shot her. She laid on the ground, pretended that she was dead while seven other gunshots that went off, which were her seven children.”

His great-grandmother "lived in a cave" with other refugees before being picked up by German soldiers. She went on to have a child with a German soldier in a refugee camp.

This, along with his health battle, will be discussed in detail in Joe's new book.

"BLOODLINES is my untold story of survival, documenting my near-decade-long struggle with a mysterious illness," he wrote on Instagram. "My search for answers took me from death’s door, around the globe, and back through time, in the hopes of understanding why I suffered, and to find the strength to continue on."