Sofia Vergara was "forced" to date Joe Manganiello.

Sofia Vergara

Sofia Vergara

The 42-year-old beauty - who stars in the hit US show 'Modern Family' - has revealed she was initially reluctant to date the 'True Blood' hunk because Joe, now 38, is younger than she is and she'd recently separated from Nick Loeb.

Sofia told 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show': "At the beginning I didn't wanted to go out with him. Because I had just finished a relationship.

"He seemed like a lot of work because so handsome and younger than me and like so sexy and whatever best bachelor or whatever he was.

"And I'm like ugh. Just too much! But he convinced me. He flew to New Orleans and forced me on a date.

"I'm like he's a great guy, super fun, super normal and we have like - we click. Like it's super easy to hang out with him."

Sofia and Joe got engaged on Christmas day, and the actress recently admitted they've already hired a wedding planner to stop them from getting anxious ahead of their special day.

She shared: "We're already planning. The good thing is that now-a-days you can hire someone to help you and I have a great planner that is taking a lot of the stress away."