Joe Manganiello Says "Deadly Mystery Illness" Left Body "Mutilated"

Perez Hilton Undergoes Emergency Surgery for "Massive" Blood Clot After Health Battle

Joe Manganiello is pulling the curtain back on his health even further.

After the Magic Mike actor shared that he had been privately navigating a near-fatal health battle for seven years, he reflected on the complicated journey.

"For the better part of the past decade, most people don't know this, but I suffered in silence, battling a deadly mystery illness," Manganiello said in a June 24 video shared on Instagram. "Other than a very small circle of family and friends, I hid it from the rest of the world. Until recently, I hadn't really shared what I had gone through."

"I saw the best doctors in the world and none of them could explain what started my illness," he continued. "All their attempts to treat it with high-powered biologic drugs only exacerbated my symptoms and then unlocked a host of brutal side effects that wound up plaguing me for years."

The 49-year-old—who announced his engagement to Caitlin O'Connor in October, two years after his breakup with wife Sofía Vergara—ultimately decided to explore more invasive solutions.

"In attempts to buy myself time, I underwent very serious operations and procedures that mutilated parts of my body and left me so weak at times that I couldn't stand up or walk," he recalled. "I spent months and months heavily medicated while dealing with excruciating bouts of chronic pain."

The True Blood alum eventually turned to unconventional methods as he tried to treat the autoimmune-related illness.

As he put it, "I needed to become open to some really radical and unorthodox techniques and ideas that lie beyond the boundaries of Western medicine."

After years of keeping his health experience out of the spotlight, Manganiello is opening up about his journey in his memoir Bloodlines, set to be released Oct 13.

Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

And the synopsis for the book sheds new light on all he went through, revealing his illness "attacked his skin, thyroid, eyes, lungs, and digestive system, plunging him into a seven-year battle."

Manganiello said in a statement to People published June 23 that the past decade had been the hardest time of his life, describing it as "one I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy."

"I hope that what I went through on this journey," he noted, "can give readers hope that answers and healing may lie for them on the other side of whatever they are fighting through."

As Manganiello navigates this next chapter in his life, keep reading for more celebs who've shared insight into their own health.

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