Ian Somerhalder revealed that he and his wife, “Twilight” star Nikki Reed, climbed out of a massive debt after leaving behind his acting career.
“The Vampire Diaries” star shared that he accrued an eight-figure debt because of a failed business.
“I retired from acting seven years ago. I left an insanely lucrative career in television after a financial upheaval from building a business that I didn’t build properly,” he admitted in an interview with E! News. “And due to fraud, it put my wife and I into an eight-figure hole.”
Somerhalder said “it all came crashing down” after he made eight figures of personal guarantees to a bank. He credited his wife with digging them out of their financial crisis.
“Eight figures is a hard hole to climb out of,” he said. “But Nikki and I did it. You know, she really negotiated us out of this deal, but we sold houses, paintings, cars, watches, everything.”
“I mean, I should have been retiring off of one of the biggest TV shows in the world,” he added, referring to the CW’s “The Vampire Diaries,” which he starred in from 2009 to 2017.
Somerhalder is now an entrepreneur after retiring from acting. He co-founded Brother’s Bond Bourbon with his “The Vampire Diaries” co-star Paul Wesley, and Somerhalder and Reed also co-founded the Absorption Company, which offers high-absorption powdered supplements.
Somerhalder’s advice for anyone looking to start a business with their significant other is to “make it fun.”
“The ups and the downs in the journey are supposed to be fun,” he said. “The grind is supposed to be fun.”
“Find the beauty in all of it,” he added.
Somerhalder, 47, and Reed, 37, tied the knot in April 2015. They share two children together: daughter Bodhi, 8, and a son they welcomed in June 2023.
The couple moved to a farm just outside of Los Angeles with their kids a few years ago and have never looked back.
“We’re building three companies at the same time, raising kids,” he told People in October 2024.
He also told E! News in January of that year of his acting career, “I loved what I did for a really long time. I don’t miss any of it. I love making films, and I just did it for so long. We had an amazing run.”
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