Ian Somerhalder Details “8 Figures” of Debt He and Nikki Reed Climbed Out of

Ian Somerhalder shared how he and wife Nikki Reed made their way out of a massive debt after investing in a bad business deal: “we sold houses, paintings, cars, watches, everything.”

Ian Somerhalder is going over the rules of business. 

The Rules of Attraction star shared insight into how he and wife Nikki Reed bounced back from a bad business deal that left them under a mountain of debt. 

“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.”

But the 47-year-old—dad to 8-year-old daughter Bodhi as well as a 2-year-old son with Nikki—has learned a lot since then. After all, Ian’s latest pastime has taught him valuable lessons in business. 

“I’ve just started learning how to be a pilot,” he explained. “You plan as much for when things don’t go right as then they do.” 

As for his advice for anyone starting a business with their spouse?

“Make it fun,” The Lost actor explained. “Remember, it’s supposed to be fun.”

He added, “Find the beauty in all of it.”

Previously, Ian shared more on the role his wife of 11 years played in getting them out of “a true nightmare,” which occurred while he was building an “important” company at the same time he was playing Damon on The Vampire Diaries from 2009 to 2017.

“This woman here decided that she didn’t want to see her husband ruin his body/mind/spirit and pulled up her bootstraps and got down in the trenches assembling a team to get to the negotiating table to find a way out,” Ian wrote on Instagram in 2021. “She devoted her life to getting me out of that mess and it almost killed her along the way.”

He added, “I am where I am BECAUSE of this woman.”

Via: E! News