Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello announce divorce after seven years of marriage

Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello are getting divorced.

The actors announced their separation after seven years of marriage in a joint statement Monday.

“We have made the difficult decision to divorce,” the couple shared in a statement to page six. “As two people who love and care very much, we politely ask that we respect our privacy at this time as we navigate this new phase of our lives.”

the hollywood reporter has reached out to representatives for Vergara and Manganiello for comment.

According Peoplethe couple first met through Vergara Modern Family co-star Jesse Tyler Ferguson at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in 2014. Vergara was engaged at the time. Later, when Vergara announced their breakup, Manganiello asked Ferguson for his phone number.

“I met Joe through people and we had done charity events together, and I knew Sofia from working with her, we were at a party together and I introduced them,” Ferguson said in The Late Late Show with James Corden At the time. “I said, ‘Have you ever met Sofia?’ and, of course, Joe was like, ‘Mmm!’”

“When she broke up with her fiance at the time, Joe, immediately, the moment it came out, he called me and said, ‘I need your number.’ And then I called Sofia and said, ‘Can I give Joe her number?’ And she was like, ‘Oh no!’ … But like, wanting her to give him the number: ‘Oh no, go ahead, okay, okay.’ So I did the number swap and he took over from there,” Ferguson continued.

Vergara would later confirm that she and Manganiello were dating in an interview with Extra. “You know, I’m having a great time and it’s a special time in my life and I’m trying not to think about it too much. It’s a very new thing, so we’ll see what happens,” she said at the time.

Meanwhile, during a appearance in the tonight show, Manganiello recalled the moment he realized that Vergara was the one for him. “I told him, ‘I know you just got out of this long-term relationship, and if you need to be single, then I understand. I’m not going to like it, but I’ll get over it. … But before you answer, I want to show you something,’” he said, before handing her the 2014. Hollywood’s hottest bachelor matter of People magazine with him on the cover.

“He picked up the magazine, opened it up, and I saw he was flipping through my interview and I said, ‘What are you doing?’ And she said, ‘I’m looking at who else is on the list,’” she said.

Vergara and Manganiello finally tied the knot in 2015 in Palm Beach, Florida. According PeopleManganiello proposed to Vergara while vacationing at the St. Regis Hotel in Princeville, Hawaii, over Christmas.