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'Vampire Diaries' actor Ian Somerhalder reveals "financial upheaval" led to his television career exit
ANI News | May 2, 2026 4:39 PM CST

Los Angeles [US], May 1 (ANI): Actor Ian Somerhalder, best known for his portrayal of Damon Salvatore in 'The Vampire Diaries', confessed to being in an eight-figure debt after taking retirement from acting.
Speaking to E! News, Somerhalder shared that "financial upheaval" was a part of the reason that made him leave a lucrative television career.
"I retired from acting seven years ago. 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. Eight figures is a hard hole to climb out of. But Nikki (Reed) and I did it. You know, she really negotiated us out of this deal, but we sold houses, paintings, cars, watches, everything," the actor said, as quoted by Variety.
Somerhalder and Nikki Reed have been married since 2015.
In a 2021 Instagram post, the actor once shared how his wife helped him out of a difficult phase.

 
 
 
 
 
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