Originally appeared on E! Online
Sofía Vergara is an open book.
And as she enters a new chapter following her divorce from Joe Manganiello, the “Modern Family” alum is reflecting on whether she felt empowered when she shared their marriage ended because he wanted to have a child together and she did not.
“Yes,” Sofía told People for its “Beautiful Issue” released May 1. “There’s things in life that might sound like good ideas, but they’re not. I was a mother already. I know what it means to be a good mother or to try to be the best mother that you can, and that takes a lot of sacrifices, takes a lot of energy.”
The actress, who is mom to 32-year-old son Manolo from a previous relationship, welcomed him when she was 19. And Vergara now 51, knew she didn’t want to start her motherhood journey all over again.
“Nowadays, thanks to science, women can actually have babies older,” she continued. “Before, nature for some reason tells your body at 50 you are in menopause, it’s time for you to be done with that. There is a reason why nature is doing that.”
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“But that’s for me, and I totally respect where anyone wants to be a mom after 50,” she added. “I didn’t think because of my career, the way I live my life, the way my marriage was, that it was fair to bring a kid to this world, and I’m not going to be able to give 100 percent.”
Vergara’s comments come less than four months after she first detailed the reason for her split from Manganiello.
“My marriage broke up because my husband was younger,” she told Spanish newspaper El País in January, “he wanted to have kids and I didn’t want to be an old mom.”
The “Magic Mike” actor, 47, and the “Griselda” star announced their breakup last summer after nearly eight years of marriage and finalized their divorce earlier this year.
While Manganiello has since gone public with his romance with Caitlin O’Connor, Vergara is playing coy about her relationship status—telling People she’s “maybe” dating someone despite appearing to recently go Instagram official with Justin Saliman.
Then again, she knows just how difficult having a relationship in the public eye can be.
“In the public, everything gets so exaggerated,” Vergara added in a video for the magazine. “Everything sometimes gets not interpreted the right way. So life is already hard. Having relationships is hard. Problems are hard. And then to see it out there and be completely changed, you want to be like, ‘What is going on?’ But you just get used to it. It is what it is. It comes with being famous, so you can’t complain that much.”
However, she’s has made it clear what she wants in a partner—telling the outlet she’s looking for someone with “health, money, fun,” their own kids, and who is in their late 40s to early 50s. And Vergara has learned a lot about love throughout the years.
“It’s tricky,” she shared. “You never know what the future is going to bring. You need to always give the best that you can, be the best person to the other person. Be there for them when they need you, when they’re going through the hardest time. Hopefully that will one day come back to you.”
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