For over ten years, she’s been making us laugh on Modern Family, and these days, Sofia
Vergara is a household name.
But the beauty who shares a hometown with Shakira didn’t have an easy road to travel.
Her rise to fame has been anything but a laugh, from personal tragedies and surviving cancer
to harsh Hollywood stereotypes and dangerous men.
Her life has been beset by hardships time and again, but Sofia has consistently managed
to rise above it.
What exactly did she think she would burn in hell for?
Tune in to learn more about how resilient attitude may just be the key to both Sofia
Vergara’s success and her survival.
Vergara was one of six children born to a home-maker and a cattle farmer in Colombia.
Although she was scouted for a hit Pepsi ad at 17, she forsook the spotlight at the time,
choosing instead to study dentistry and marry her childhood sweetheart.
A year later, at 20 years old, she gave birth to their son, Manolo.
Sadly, the couple divorced the following year, and Vergara moved to the capital with her
son, where she was soon doing well as a model and starring in a telenovela.
Despite Vergara’s success in Colombia, when she was asked to host a travel show based
in Miami, she immediately took it.
She’d become wary of gang violence in her native country and saw the new job as an opportunity
to give her son a better life.
However, good fortune didn’t last long for the future A-lister as she tragically lost
someone close to her.
While Vergara was filming her show in Miami, her older brother Rafael was murdered as part
of a failed kidnapping attempt.
Although their economic status somewhat protected the members of the Vergara family, the same
advantages also made them potential targets.
The murder remains unsolved, and Sofia still mourns her brother to this day.
She was heartbroken by the loss and wanted to make sure her family was never a target
for violence ever again.
Her brother’s murder led to Sofia moving the rest of her family to Miami.
“I wanted to be with them.
So, I got a big house, and we all lived together,” she said.
Still reeling from the loss of her beloved brother, Vergara was dealt another crippling
blow.
This time it had to do with her own health.
When she was just 28 years old, Sofia received a scary diagnosis.
While at an appointment for her son Manolo, a doctor convinced her to get her thyroid
checked.
When the lump on her neck tested positive for cancer, she was scared.
“I felt totally healthy, and suddenly they tell me I have cancer?” she recalls.
Vergara bravely underwent surgery to remove her thyroid, but the health problems didn’t
stop there.
After the surgery, the famous actor was diagnosed with hypothyroidism, a condition she’s had
to manage ever since.
Her diagnosis may surprise many, but she speaks about it openly and has served as a spokesperson
for campaigns to educate people on the condition.
At an event to launch the “Follow The Script” campaign in 2013, the actor said she had difficulty
accepting the reality of her condition after the surgery.
However, surviving cancer has taught Vergara to focus on balance in
her life.
She wants to be healthy while also indulging every so often.
“You shouldn’t do too much of anything,” she said at the event.
“You have to live your life and be happy because I think being happy and not stressing
all the time also helps you ... But it’s important to go to the doctor, have your check-ups,
work out, eat healthy, everything.
The trouble wasn’t over for Sofia, over the next decade, her younger brother Julio
battled substance abuse issues that resulted in about 30 arrests and, sadly, his deportation
back to Colombia.
“To see somebody dying over ten years, little by little, that’s the worst punishment.
Now he’s like another person.”
Sofía Vergara has been through so much, but her biggest battle to date was with her ex-fiancé,
Nick Loeb.
He took her to court in a custody battle over embryos the couple had created as they planned
to live the rest of their lives together.
Following the couple’s split, Loeb tried unsuccessfully to sue Vergara in a California
court for custody of them.
Fortunately for her, the lawsuit got dropped after the court asked Loeb a bombshell question.
Lawyers wanted him to identify two women who obtained abortions after he’d impregnated
them.
The lawsuit’s ultimate purpose was to void a contract signed by Vergara and Loeb, which
stipulated that neither party had the right to use the embryos without the other’s consent.
Furthermore, Loeb wanted Vergara’s parental rights to the embryos terminated on the grounds
of abandonment and neglect.
Fortunately, the court dismissed the case again — all for a bizarre reason.
It was only because the former couple conceived the embryos in California, which meant that
the Louisiana court system had no jurisdiction over them.
Crazy!
It all just goes to show: you can never predict what’s going on in someone’s personal
life, even if everything seems perfect on the outside.
The actor tried several failed sitcoms over the years before striking gold with her portrayal
of Gloria Pritchett on Modern Family.
Everything since then has been pure gold professionally, but Sofia Vergara didn’t have such great
luck as for her personal life.
The same year Vergara received her cancer diagnosis, her then-boyfriend, Chris Paciello
, was arrested on charges of racketeering, felony murder and bank robbery.
Fortunately, the two broke up even before he was convicted for his crimes, but Vergara’s
attraction to “bad boys” hadn't waned — some habits die hard!
In 2004, she reportedly had a fling with former Colombian drug lord Andrés López López
. In short, even throughout the relationships that followed (of course, including an engagement
to Nick Loeb), Vergara’s love life was rocky at best, leading her from one heartbreak to
another.
Even the Mission Impossible star himself tried to lure Sofia into Scientology, vetting her
personally for the role of his wife.
If she had been interested, she would today be the next Mrs Cruise.
Ultimately, the relationship was doomed from the start because she sincerely believed that
she would be struck down by God and burn in hell if she joined Scientology.
“It’s not like you only have to please your husband — you have to toe the line
for all Scientology,” Mark Hedley, an ex-Scientologist, told Vanity Fair.
“You can’t do anything to displease Scientology because Tom Cruise will freak out.”
Thankfully, Vergara exited the situation before it truly began.
Though Sofia Vergara’s fame might seem like it came quickly because of the instant success
of Modern Family — it didn’t.
The Colombian accent that is part of her charm is also a hindrance to her for a specific
reason.
“You can’t compare the opportunities you get to an American-accented actress.
When they get ten scripts a week, I get two a month.”
When she began acting, she hired a coach to try and help her get rid of her accent.
“But my auditions were getting worse because I was forgetting to act and focusing on the
pronunciations.”
Former ABC president Steve McPherson believed in her and kept her signed to her deal with
the network even after two failed comedies.
McPherson’s loyalty to Vergara resulted in Modern Family co-creators writing a role
specifically for her.
No one else ever attempted to be Gloria (as if they could).
Vergara admitted that while being an immigrant is “very hard,” she’s grateful for all
the opportunities she’s found in the U.S.
“From my experience, it’s a country that has given me an opportunity to raise my family,
to work and make money.”
Apart from having trouble getting auditions because of her accent, her looks, mainly her
blond hair, seemed to have been a problem as well.
When she started as an actor, because of her accent, her body, and her personality, quote
“it was not the stereotype of the Latina woman in Hollywood, so they didn’t know
where to put me”.
The blond hair wasn’t matching.
The moment she dyed her hair dark, it was better for her work.
Who would’ve thought?
Her hair colour perfectly suits her skin tone and enhances her beauty.
Vergara might have taken a minute to make a splash in the industry, but she definitely
worked for her fame.
“Often, I haven’t been the youngest or most intelligent girl in the room,” she
once told Women’s Health, “but I always, always am the hardest-working one.
Dreams don’t happen if you just sit down and accept things.”
Hard work has always been of the utmost importance to Vergara, and that didn’t change when
she became a household name.
The actor explained that she spent her first six years on the show working overtime and
at weekends.
“I worked like an animal.
I wanted to take advantage of my 15 minutes of fame because you never know.”
Amen, Sofia, amen.
After years of putting herself first, working so hard, raising a child on her own, and handling
a dangerous medical condition, she met her right one.
Joe Manganiello reportedly first laid eyes on and fell in love with Vergara when he spotted
her at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
The only problem?
Vergara was engaged to another man, Nick Loeb.
When Vergara and Loeb split a few weeks later, Manganiello made his move.
Manganiello flew out to New Orleans, where she was on location for a movie and took her
out on a date.
And boy, was he successful.
Within six months, they were engaged, and later on, the lovebirds were happily married.
The best part?
They are endlessly supportive of each other.
It’s been smooth sailing ever since.
“We even talk to each other all the time in this little voice that we made up, like
a couple of dorks.
Whoever heard us would say, ‘What’s their problem?’”
Sofia says.
Throughout it all, Sofia Vergara has stuck the course and done everything in her power
to better the lives of herself and her family.
Despite the very real struggles she went through as a single working mom, a grieving sister,
and a cancer patient, she managed to provide for her son, succeed beyond expectations in
her career, and find love at long last.
Vergara has come a long way, and we can only imagine what she’ll accomplish next!