Ian Somerhalder was once a Hollywood heartthrob. Best known for his work as Damon, the brooding character from ‘The Vampire Diaries,’ he was basking in the show’s success, which still draws in fans every year. However, the actor soon realised he didn’t want to spend the rest of his days in Hollywood. The 47-year-old made the conscious decision to officially retire from the industry in 2019 and has since been living away on a farm with his family and his animals. Here is a look into his journey from one of the biggest and most sought-after stars in Hollywood to embracing the rural lifestyle.
Ian Somerhalder comes from a long line of farmers
Ian Somerhalder was born Ian Joseph Somerhalder on December 8, 1978, in Covington, Louisiana. During an interview that he did in June this year with Fox News Digital, the actor shared that his heritage and roots are deep in Louisiana. He was born and raised there in his early years and revealed during the interview that his family comes from a long line of farmers dating back to the 1700s. Growing up, Somerhalder shared that he had seen all kinds of farming practices, which included both regenerative farming and the conventional methods that have been followed for years.His interest in living the farm life away from the hustle and bustle of city life was also deep-rooted in his childhood. However, a trip to Zimbabwe pushed him to take a leap of faith and follow his passion. Years ago, he met regenerative agriculture pioneer Allan Savoury, who directly invited him to work with him in Africa to understand how beneficial this new form of farming was.
Ian Somerhalder’s life shifted after his trip to Zimbabwe
Somerhalder has officially retired as an actor and now mainly focuses on living his life on the farm with his partner, Nikki Reed, and their children: their daughter, Bodhi Soleil Reed Somerhalder, who was born in 2017, and their son, whom the couple welcomed in 2023. To date, the duo have not shared their son’s name and maintain strict confidentiality when it comes to their kids.During the interview, the actor weighed in on how his decision to leave the world of glitz and glamour was one of the best decisions that he had made. He shared that it was a trip to Zimbabwe that changed his perspective on a lot of things. Not only that, but this is where he discovered regenerative farming practices and how people used such techniques to revive barren land that had lost its fertility years ago, and how such techniques were saving land and ecosystems from going to waste. He commented, “It shifted my life forever.”He further explained, “That’s how it started, where I realised and saw firsthand how regenerative practices cannot just fix land, heal it, and rebuild it into a verdant oasis, like wetlands and grasslands. And then once I learned from Alan that grasslands have the potential to be the most enormous carbon sinks, right? That’s how the world used to work. And I learned that at like 32 years old. I got the best form of it. Living in a freaking military tent.“
Ian Somerhalder embraced the farm life and has been promoting regenerative farming since then
During the interview, Somerhalder revisited his time with the locals and how he would have to take malaria pills every day and once even woke up to lion paws imprinted on his tent; however, it was an extremely profound experience for him. The former actor started taking the concept so seriously that he has worked on creating a three-film documentary series on regenerative farming. His first documentary film, ‘Kiss the Ground,’ which was released in 2020, was also based on a lot of the footage that he took during his trip to Zimbabwe. This was also followed up by another film, ‘Common Ground,’ which was released in 2023.He further added, “That was the film that changed all of our lives forever and ever and ever. And set fire to a course that would effectively, for lack of a better word, shift and alter the course of history, agricultural history in the United States of America.”
Ian Somerhalder even revealed that ‘V-Wars ’ affected him heavily and made him question his life choices
In a podcast episode of ‘Haley on the Go,’ he shared that his last series, ‘V-Wars,’ was also something that pushed him over the edge and made him rethink whether he actually wanted to stay in the Hollywood industry. Talking about the matter during the interview, he shared that he truly believed in the show and worked hard on it, only for the final draft to not even be “watchable.”He shared that he and his producing partner, James Gibb, wanted creative control over the show; however, they were directly denied by the production studios behind the show. The company also refused to give them any more money to “fix” the show, which prompted Somerhalder and Gibb to invest their own USD 6 million into the show. It premiered in December 2019 and was a hit amongst the fan base; however, it still ended up getting booted.He commented, “I looked at myself in the mirror, and I said to my wife, I was like, man, I’m 40 years old. I don’t want to spend two years of my life doing something, working this hard—one year fully unpaid—for this executive who had issues in high school, so they want to exert power now [to cancel it]. I am not here for my career and livelihood to be dictated by someone who has mommy or daddy issues, or they weren’t popular in school.”This incident affected his life and his confidence a lot; however, it also helped him understand what he truly wanted. “So I pulled the plug. That was it. I walked away. These executives are b****** at each other, and I’m like, are you kidding me? Done. I’m out,” he said.
Ian Somerhalder’s ventures over the years
Beyond his work in the film industry, Somerhalder ventured into many business ideas and now focuses all of his energy on running these ventures. One of his biggest and most well-known businesses is the four-grain straight bourbon and whiskey brand he co-founded in 2021 alongside his ‘The Vampire Diaries’ co-star, Paul Wesley, who played his younger brother, Stefan, in the show. He also has a health supplement brand that he co-founded with his wife, Nikki, along with Nate Medow and Zeke Bronfman, in 2023.Other than this, he and Reed also started a clean energy business venture; however, after multiple attempts to keep it afloat, the venture collapsed and left the couple in debt worth USD 10 million. This prompted them to sell off their previous residential properties and homes to pay everything off and start fresh. In an old interview with E! News, the former ‘Lost’ star commented, “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 me into an eight-figure hole.”As for his work in the film industry? The actor last appeared in front of the camera for such a project in 2019, when he starred in the vampire-based series, ‘V-Wars,’ as one of the leading actors. Before that, he last appeared in a documentary series in 2014 and in the British science fiction film ‘The Anomaly.’He now lives on a working farm right outside of Los Angeles along with Reed and their children, as well as approximately 20 farm animals.
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