Actor Joe Manganiello is opening up in a new memoir, “Bloodlines,” about a nearly decade-long struggle with a mysterious illness that pushed him through severe medical crises and moments he says nearly cost him his life.
WASHINGTON — Manganiello announced the book Tuesday, revealing that it will chronicle a previously private health ordeal involving “multiple near-death experiences and medical crises.”
The “Magic Mike” actor and “Deal or No Deal Island” host followed up Wednesday with a video about the memoir, saying he had spent about seven years suffering quietly while “battling a deadly mystery illness.”
“I saw the best doctors in the world. None of them could explain what started my illness,” he said. “In attempts to buy myself time, I underwent very serious operations and procedures that mutilated parts of my body and left me so weak at times that I couldn’t stand up or walk.”
According to the book’s summary, Manganiello’s body began to “fail him” suddenly and without a clear cause. “Bloodlines” is available for preorder ahead of its Oct. 13 release.
“A cascade of autoimmune-related illnesses attacked his skin, thyroid, eyes, lungs, and digestive system, plunging him into a seven year battle, plagued by chronic pain, a life-saving organ amputation, existential crisis, and a prolonged fight for survival that left doctors with few answers and no clear explanation,” the summary said.
“It was the most brutally difficult time of my life, one I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, but also my greatest adventure,” Manganiello, 49, told PEOPLE in a statement.
The summary does not go into detail about what was amputated, but Johns Hopkins Medicine defines amputation as “the loss or removal of a body part such as a finger, toe, hand, foot, arm or leg.” Other less common body parts that are amputated include parts of the face, breasts or genitals, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Organs typically are removed, excised, extracted or resected, but are not usually referred to as “amputated.” We reached out to Manganiello’s representative for clarification, but have not heard back as of publishing.
“In order to heal my mind, my body, my spirit all had to align and I needed to become open to some really radical and unorthodox techniques and ideas that lie beyond the boundaries of Western medicine,” Manganiello said in the video.
The book summary said he explored down the path of shamans, pagan rituals, ancient myths, long lost family records, and the rebirth of his own spirituality.
The book is available for preorder in hardcover, e-book and audiobook, read by Manganiello himself, for between $14.00 to $30.
