Brother’s murder, cancer, egg freezing: the dramatic biography of Sofia Vergara Stars

Sofia Vergara is one of six children of a farmer and a housewife. She was born on July 10, 1972 in Barranquilla, Colombia.

Her first television experience was in 1989 in a Pepsi commercial. The girl in the bikini attracted the attention of television producers and they began to offer her small roles. In parallel, she studied to become a dentist. A year later, Sofia married her first love, José “Joe” Gonzalez, and a year later she gave birth to a son, Manolo.

Divorced in 1993, Vergara dropped out of school and moved to Bogotá, where she began her career as a model. At the same time, she starred in the Mexican TV series Acapulco, Body and Soul, which made her famous throughout Latin America.

A year later, she was offered to become a TV show host and moved to Miami. Evidently, this was a great chance for the young actress to give herself and her son a better life, and she immediately packed up and left.

In 1998, her older brother Rafael, who was 27 years old, was shot dead near his home. “Our family is quite wealthy and he could easily fall prey to kidnappers,” said Sophia. “He went everywhere with guards and then left the house alone and was shot dead after a failed kidnapping attempt. I was devastated.” The killers received 15 years in prison.

In the mid-1990s, the actress met Chris Paciello, the owner of a nightclub closely associated with the criminal world. Due to his involvement in many illegal scams, he was nicknamed the Binder. His club business partner Ingrid Casares was friends with Madonna, Jennifer Lopez and other famous people, it was believed that Pasiello was a very influential person.

In 2000, he was accused of murdering a woman four years earlier and the court placed him under house arrest. He pleaded guilty… and Sophia offered to sell her Miami home to pay the bail. But that didn’t help: he got six years in prison and they parted ways.

In the same year, Vergara was diagnosed with thyroid cancer: “I was completely healthy and suddenly they told me I had cancer! Terrible”. Fortunately, the disease was caught at an early stage, the thyroid gland was excised, the actress was treated with iodine – and the disease could be forgotten.

Sophia was still drawn to villains. In 2004, she had a brief affair with Colombian drug lord Andres Lopez. He said of her: “A beautiful woman whom I adore.”

In 2005, the actress signed a contract with ABC to star in the series My Wife and Kids and left Miami for Los Angeles. There she met Tom Cruise, who was already deeply immersed in the pseudo-religious Scientology. Raised in a Catholic family, Sophia did not wish to marry him: she believed that she would go to hell if she abandoned her faith. However, Cruise easily broke up with her, and a year later he married the more accommodating Katie Holmes.

Sofia’s popularity as an actress and seductive woman grew, yellow newspapers even called her Sofia Viagra! In 2008, she landed roles in Meet the Browns and Medea in Prison.

And a year later, the filming of the series “Modern Family” began, which brought her truly worldwide fame. Her Colombian accent gave the heroine – Gloria Delgado-Pritchett a unique charm. Vergara had to play herself! She received $325,000 for one episode, and then the fees increased even more.

At the same time, Sofie did not forget her family and friends. For her 40th birthday in 2012, she brought 107 (!) people to Mexico. At the Emmys in 2013, Vergara bought 21 expensive tickets – for the whole family, but she never won, as she did three years in a row before.

In 2010, Sophia met businessman Nick Loeb, but their relationship was like a volcanic eruption, so they often fought. In 2012, he proposed to her… and she continued to communicate with Chris Paciello, already on friendly terms. This did not contribute much to peaceful relations! They split in May 2014, and Vergara soon found solace in the arms of Joe Manganiello.

On November 22, 2015, their grand wedding took place. Now she was happy!

In 2013, she froze her eggs, but to this day, Sofia Vergara is the mother of one adult son, Manolo. We’ll see what happens next.

Photo: Getty images, Legion media