The actor said his upcoming memoir chronicles his decade-long search for answers after years of chronic pain, surgeries and unsuccessful treatments
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NEED TO KNOW
- Joe Manganiello said he battled a “deadly mystery illness” in silence for nearly a decade
- The actor revealed he spent “months and months heavily medicated” while enduring chronic pain and multiple surgeries
- Manganiello said his upcoming memoir, Bloodlines, chronicles his years-long search for answers and journey toward healing
Joe Manganiello is opening up further about the devastating health ordeal that inspired his upcoming memoir.
In an Instagram Reel shared on Wednesday, June 24, the 49-year-old actor reflected on his decade-long battle with what he described as a "deadly mystery illness" after PEOPLE exclusively announced his memoir, Bloodlines, a day earlier.
"Some of you may know, yesterday PEOPLE.com announced that I had written a new memoir, and I just wanted to take a few moments to talk about that a little bit," Manganiello said at the start of the video.
The True Blood and Magic Mike star said he largely kept his health struggles private for years.
"For the better part of the past decade — most people don't know this — but I suffered in silence, battling a deadly mystery illness, and other than a very small circle of family and friends, I hid it from the rest of the world, and until recently hadn't really shared what I'd gone through," he said.
Manganiello went on to describe years of unsuccessful medical treatments, saying he consulted "the best doctors in the world" but never received an explanation for what caused his illness.
Credit: Weiss Eubanks/NBCUniversal via Getty
The actor added that, in an effort "to buy myself time," he underwent "very serious operations and procedures" that "mutilated parts of my body" and at times left him unable to stand or walk.
"I spent months and months heavily medicated while dealing with excruciating boughs of chronic pain," Manganiello said, before revealing that after three years of writing, Bloodlines is complete.
According to an official synopsis previously shared exclusively with PEOPLE, Bloodlines chronicles Manganiello's health crisis, which began with what he describes as "a cascade of autoimmune-related illnesses" affecting his skin, thyroid, eyes, lungs and digestive system. The synopsis says the seven-year ordeal included chronic pain, a life-saving organ amputation and multiple medical crises that left doctors unable to determine the cause of his condition.
Manganiello said the memoir also explores the unexpected path his search for answers took.
"It documents my 10 year search for answers and expands the globe, and also backwards in time as I expand on my understanding of my family's history and make some absolutely unbelievable discoveries," he said.
The book's synopsis similarly says Manganiello turned to "shamans, pagan rituals, ancient myths, long-lost family records and the rebirth of his own spirituality" while investigating his ancestry and searching for healing beyond traditional medicine.
In an exclusive statement to PEOPLE announcing the memoir, Manganiello described the experience as both the hardest and most transformative period of his life.
"It was the most brutally difficult time of my life, one I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy, but also my greatest adventure," he said. "I hope that what I went through on this journey can give readers hope that answers and healing may lie for them on the other side of whatever they are fighting through. The process of writing this book gave me the gift of perspective that helped me to see that my suffering was a cocoon from which I would emerge forever changed."
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Credit: Ethan Miller/Getty; Simon & Schuster
Manganiello echoed that message at the end of his Instagram video, saying he hopes the memoir resonates with others facing their own health challenges.
"If you're out there and you're suffering, then then there's hope, and hopefully you'll get something out of it," he concluded in the video.
Bloodlines will be released on Oct. 13 in print, Kindle and audiobook formats. It is now available for preorder wherever books are sold.
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