Ian Somerhalder was one of the faces of The Vampire Diaries, a CW drama that ran from 2009 to 2017 and became durable streaming comfort food for a very committed audience. But according to the actor, life after Mystic Falls was not the clean financial glide path many viewers might assume.
Speaking to E! News at The Beverage Forum on April 28, Somerhalder said he left behind a highly profitable acting career after a business venture went badly wrong, leaving him and his wife, Nikki Reed, dealing with major debt.
From Damon Salvatore to a financial reset
Somerhalder played Damon Salvatore across The Vampire Diaries, the vampire whose story was tied closely to Elena Gilbert, played by Nina Dobrev, and to his complicated bond with brother Stefan Salvatore, played by Paul Wesley.
The series was a major CW hit and helped launch a wider franchise, including The Originals and Legacies. Somerhalder had also appeared in projects including Smallville, Lost, and V Wars, which makes his account of post-Vampire Diaries financial trouble land with some force. Television fame can be lucrative, but it is not an automatic shield against a bad business bet. Annoying, but true.
Somerhalder told E! News: “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.”
