Ian Somerhalder 'sold everything' to get out of 'eight-figure debt'

Ian Somerhalder has revealed he sold "everything" he owned to pay back an "eight-figure" debt.

In an interview for E! News this week, The Vampire Diaries star recalled how his world "all came crashing down" several years ago after he made "eight figures of personal guarantees to a bank" for an undisclosed energy company.

"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," he claimed.

Ian didn't offer an exact figure of debt or explain how he ended up in financial distress.

But he credited his wife, actress-entrepreneur Nikki Reed, for helping them sort out the dire situation.

"Eight figures is a hard hole to climb out of," the 47-year-old 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."

Elsewhere in the conversation, Ian shared that he has been pursuing new ventures. The former Lost actor founded Brother's Bond Bourbon with his former Vampire Diaries co-star Paul Wesley in 2020.

"I've just started learning how to be a pilot," he added. "You plan as much for when things don't go right as then they do."

Ian and Nikki married in 2015. They share daughter Bodhi, eight, and a son, who was born in 2023.