Ian Somerhalder has revealed that he and his wife, Twilight star Nikki Reed, crawled out of huge debt after quitting their acting careers.
The ‘Vampire Diaries’ star has revealed he has racked up eight figures in debt after a failed business venture.
“I retired from acting seven years ago. I left a very 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 because of the fraud, my wife and I were in an eight-figure hole.”
Somerhalder said that after giving an eight-figure personal guarantee to the bank, “everything fell apart.” He credited his wife with bailing him out of the financial crisis.
“Eight figures is a tough hole to climb out of,” he says. “But Nikki and I did it. You know, she really negotiated us out of this deal. But we sold the house, the paintings, the car, the watch, everything.”
“I mean, I should have retired from one of the biggest TV shows in the world,” he added, referring to The CW’s “The Vampire Diaries,” in which he starred from 2009 to 2017.
After retiring from acting, Somerhalder is now an entrepreneur. He co-founded Brothers Bond Bourbon with his “Vampire Diaries” co-star Paul Wesley, and Somerhalder and Reed also co-founded Absorption Company, which offers highly absorbent powdered supplements.
Somerhalder’s advice to anyone looking to start a business with their significant other is to “make it fun.”
“The ups and downs of the journey should be fun,” he said. “The grind should be fun.”
“Find the beauty in it all,” he added.
Somerhalder, 47, and Reed, 37, married in April 2015. They have two children, an 8-year-old daughter Bodhi and a son born in June 2023.
The couple moved with their children to a farm outside of Los Angeles a few years ago and never looked back.
“We’re raising children and building three companies at the same time,” he told People in October 2024.
He also told E! In January of that year there was news about his acting career. “I’ve loved what I’ve done for a really long time. I don’t miss any of it. I love making movies and I’ve just been doing it for a long time. We’ve done great.”
