Lost and Vampire Diaries alum Ian Somerhalder gave candid insight into how he and his wife paid off an eight-figure debt, saying they sold off “houses, paintings, cars, watches.”
Somerhalder, 47, shared with E! News that he and his wife, Nikki Reed, 37, had to find a way to climb out of “an eight-figure hole.”
“I retired from acting seven years ago,” Ian said. “I left an insanely lucrative career in television after financial upheaval from building a business that I didn’t build properly. And due to fraud, it put my wife and I into an eight-figure hole.”
The CW heartthrob said the crash came after he made eight figures of personal guarantees to a bank for a clean energy company while still playing Damon Salvatore on The Vampire Diaries, which ran from 2009 to 2017. Before that, he was best known for playing Boone Carlyle on the popular ABC drama Lost.
Somerhalder credited Reed for her support. “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 should have been retiring off of one of the biggest TV shows in the world,” said Somerhalder, saying retirement should have come before “starting companies that were not gonna pay me possibly ever.”
The actor said that being the star of a TV show is “literally like eating a cupcake compared to being an entrepreneur.
Somerhalder previously opened up about the “awful” situation in 2021, writing a tribute to Reed on Instagram. “She devoted her life to getting me out of that mess, and it almost killed her along the way. I am where I am BECAUSE of this woman,” he said.
He shared that he started the company before he and Reed got together, saying that he “invested heavily” and “made huge personal guarantees to banks.”
“I’ve never disclosed this publicly, but this woman worked selflessly for 2yrs to build me out of a terrible business situation I got myself into,” Somerhalder told his followers.
“I was able to start my life over because of this woman,” the actor continued in his emotional post. “Needless to say it’s been the most eye opening and truly humbling experience. Painful as hell but as a family SHE got us through. It’s unreal. I owe her my health, my life and my sanity.”
Somerhalder and Reed, of Twilight fame, have been married since 2015. They share an 8-year-old daughter and a 2-year-old son.
Alongside Vampire Diaries co-star Paul Wesley, Somerhalder now runs Brother’s Bond Bourbon. He and Reed also run a supplements business together called The Absorption Company.
