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Ian Somerhalder recently opened up about how he and his wife, Nikki Reed, best known for her role in “Twilight,” managed to overcome a significant financial burden after he stepped away from his acting career.
The former star of “The Vampire Diaries” revealed that he found himself in an eight-figure debt due to a business venture that didn’t pan out as planned. In a candid interview with E! News, Somerhalder explained, “I retired from acting seven years ago and left a highly lucrative career in television due to a financial upheaval. I had attempted to build a business, but it wasn’t done correctly, and along with experiencing fraud, it led my wife and me into a massive financial pit.”
He recounted how everything “came crashing down” after making personal guarantees to a bank that amounted to eight figures. He expressed immense gratitude towards his wife for her pivotal role in resolving their financial crisis.
“Climbing out of an eight-figure debt is incredibly challenging,” Somerhalder acknowledged. “But Nikki and I managed to do it. She was instrumental in negotiating us out of this predicament. We ended up selling houses, paintings, cars, watches—everything.”
“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.”