Bloodlines: A Memoir

In this gripping memoir, actor Joe Manganiello, star of True Blood and Magic Mike, reveals the previously undisclosed health ordeal—marked by multiple near-death experiences and medical crises—that led him beyond medicine and into a remarkable, globe-spanning quest that revealed answers about his ancestry, inherited trauma, and the deeper histories we carry. Joe Manganiello seemed to have it all: a soaring career, a new marriage, and what many considered, the best physique in Hollywood. Then, without warning, his body began to fail him. 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. As Manganiello struggled to stay alive amidst medicine’s inability to fully explain what ailed him, an unorthodox path emerged—shamans, pagan rituals, ancient myths, long lost family records, and the rebirth of his own spirituality.