Lost and The Vampire Diaries star Ian Somerhalder has opened up about financial problems. According to Fox News, the issues started after a "bad business deal" left them in a lot of debt.
In an interview, Somerhalder explained that he was forced to sell "everything" because of the fraudulent dealings. He explained, "I left an insanely lucrative career in television after financial upheaval from building a business I didn't build properly. And due to fraud, it put my wife and I into an eight-figure hole."
He went on to note that his wife, Twilight star Nikki Reed, was able to help them recover from the debt. "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."
Ian Somerhalder explained that he first went into the business while he was starring on The Vampire Diaries as Damon Salvatore. "I should have been retiring off of one of the biggest TV shows in the world," he lamented. He said that instead of doing so, he "start[ed] companies that were not going to pay me possibly ever."
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Ian Somerhalder Explained How the Debt Originally Happened
Ian Somerhalder originally opened up about his financial crisis when it was still happening, in 2021. He explained in a statement that he "invested heavily" in his company, making "huge personal guarantees" to different banks.
But, there were big issues. The financial ruin was "due to greed and fraud within that company and fraudulent activities from our biggest customer, not to mention the temporary collapse of the oil and gas industry."
While he wasn't clear about the specific details about the company (fair enough), he was clear about one thing. That the whole thing had made him fall ill. He said that travelling the world in an attempt to get the debt paid off caused four hospitalizations in two years.
We're very glad that the "eight figure hole" is all resolved for Ian Somerhalder now. Good on him and his wife for managing to get out of that whole debacle!
