After Ian Somerhalder retired from acting circa 2019-2020, he and Nikki Reed pivoted to farm life. They’re currently raising their two kids, Bodhi, eight, and a son, nearly three, on a farm somewhere outside of Los Angeles. Over the years, Nikki and Ian have both had various business endeavors, including executive producing an environmental documentary called Common Ground. Ian has a bourbon brand with his Vampire Diaries costar, Paul Wesley, while Nikki runs a supplement company and is the CEO and co-founder of a sustainable jewelry line.
A few years ago, Ian revealed in a birthday post for Nikki that she’d helped him get out of at least $10 million in debt that was the result of a bad business deal he’d done before they started dating. He never said what the business was and neither of them talked about it again publicly until now. In an exclusive interview with E! News, Ian gave more details about what happened, how they got out of it, and once again praised his wife for all of her help. While he didn’t name the failed business, he did reveal that it was a clean energy company.
“I retired from acting seven years ago,” Ian exclusively told E! News’ Will Marfuggi at the Beverage Forum in Manhattan Beach, Calif., on April 28. “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.”
Specifically, he shared that “it all came crashing down” after he made eight figures of personal guarantees to a bank for an unnamed clean energy company.
Years later, he credits the Twilight actress with helping them reach financial stability.
“Eight figures is a hard hole to climb out of,” he explained. “But Nikki and I did it. You know, she really negotiated us out of this deal but we sold houses, paintings, cars, watches, everything.”
Looking back, The Vampire Diaries star—who is now a co-founder of multiple successful business initiatives, including Brother’s Bond Bourbon with former costar Paul Wesley—noted he “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.”
Nikki is a total rock star and Ian is lucky to have had her support. I cannot imagine being at least $10 million in debt! That is a crazy amount of money. Living in Los Angeles is so expensive. It makes sense that they left after all of this went down in favor of a cheaper lifestyle. They moved out of LA during the pandemic, too, when most productions shut down, so no one was getting work regardless. They’re lucky that they had so many assets to sell off and the opportunity to pursue other business opportunities. So many “regular” people with outstanding debt don’t have those options.
I also appreciate that Ian has consistently given Nikki credit and his gratitude for helping him get out of debt. So many women work tirelessly to support their husbands without being acknowledged. Also, good on Ian for following Nikki’s plans and not turning to a more toxic way to try to get out of it himself, like gambling or some type of right-wing grift.
Photos credit: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon, Jeffrey Mayer/Avalon, Getty Images and via YouTube