Ian Somerhalder and Nikki Reed faced some major financial challenges as they transitioned their careers away from acting.
The Vampire Diaries star, 47, retired from acting in 2019, leaving behind an “insanely lucrative career in television,” while also navigating “financial upheaval from building a business that I didn’t build properly.”
Somerhalder said that “fraud” left him and Reed, 37, “in an eight-figure hole,” which he described as “a hard hole to climb out of, but Nikki and I did it.” He credited his wife, who “really negotiated us out of this deal,” he said.
To get out of debt, the couple “sold houses, paintings, cars, watches — everything,” he told E! News at the Beverage Forum in Manhattan Beach, Calif., on Tuesday, April 28.
Nikki Reed (L) and Ian Somerhalder (R) on April 24, 2025
Credit: Paul Archuleta/Getty
“I mean, I should’ve been retiring off of one of the biggest TV shows in the world,” Somerhalder said, referring to his eight-year run on The Vampire Diaries.
Somerhalder retired from acting after V Wars was canceled, and he told in October 2024 that he doesn’t see himself returning to acting. “I think it’s in the rearview mirror. I do,” he said.
Though he “got the rights back for V Wars,” Somerhalder said, “I just don’t know how the hell we would ever make a TV show. We’re building three companies at the same time, raising kids.”
The Lost star has previously reflected on the big risk he took in 2019 when he walked away from acting and producing.
“I remember sitting with my management talking about this, saying, ‘Hey, this is the only thing I’ve ever known that’s ever sustained my family, and I’m walking away from it,’ at this sort of peak,” he told PEOPLE in 2024. “[I] could have gone and done anything, but these partnerships mean way more to me.”
“I say this in all humility, in all respect, but I would much rather do this than go spend two months in some city, shooting a TV show away from my family or transporting my family back and forth,” he said. “Once you reach a certain level, you’re like, ‘Okay, I want to focus on family and the future of farming and food and energy and the big things.’ I don’t need to chase awards and anything that would make me feel better about myself.”
Nikki Reed and Ian Somerhalder at a book signing event for “Kiss The Ground” at The Grove
Credit: Victoria Sirakova/Getty
From Reed’s perspective, she and her husband have “amazing platforms” thanks to their time in the “entertainment world,” and while they’ve shifted their focus toward other ventures lately, “I don’t view it like a walk away,” she said.
“I sort of view a nice transitional moment right now of figuring out how to really marry business with passion, with, you know, truly walking the walk,” Reed said on SiriusXM’s The Julia Cunningham Show last year. “I think you can talk about this stuff all you want, but if you don’t have your feet on the ground and you aren’t doing it in practice, then it’s hard to really be an expert in something you don’t know, and so that’s a real priority for me.”
Somerhalder and Reed share two children: a daughter, Bodhi Soleil, 8, and a son whose name has not been publicly revealed. Their son turns 3 next month.