Ian Somerhalder is opening up about the financial turmoil he and his wife, Nikki Reed, faced after a business deal went sour, leaving them in an eight-figure hole.
Speaking exclusively to E! News at the Beverage Forum in Manhattan Beach, California, on April 28, the former Vampire Diaries star revealed that he retired from acting seven years ago following significant financial upheaval. "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," he said.
The debt stemmed from personal guarantees he made to a bank for a clean energy company, which ultimately collapsed. "It all came crashing down," Somerhalder explained.
However, the couple managed to climb out of debt, a feat he credits largely to Reed's determination. "Eight figures is a hard hole to climb out of, but Nikki and I did it. You know, she really negotiated us out of this deal but we sold houses, paintings, cars, watches, everything," he shared.
Now a co-founder of several successful businesses, including Brother's Bond Bourbon with former co-star Paul Wesley, Somerhalder reflected on the lessons learned. "I should have been retiring off of one of the biggest TV shows in the world instead of starting companies that were not gonna pay me possibly ever," he said.
The father of two—daughter Bodhi, 8, and a son, 2—has also taken up flying, which taught him valuable planning skills. "You plan as much for when things don't go right as when they do," he noted.
For couples thinking of starting a business together, Somerhalder's advice is simple: "Make it fun. Remember, it's supposed to be fun. Find the beauty in all of it."
In a 2021 Instagram post, Somerhalder had previously praised Reed for her role in their recovery, writing, "This woman here decided that she didn't want to see her husband ruin his body/mind/spirit and pulled up her bootstraps and got down in the trenches assembling a team to get to the negotiating table to find a way out. She devoted her life to getting me out of that mess and it almost killed her along the way."
He added, "I am where I am BECAUSE of this woman."