Ian Somerhalder Details "8 Figures” of Debt He and Nikki Reed Climbed Out of

Watch : Ian Somerhalder Shares How He, Nikki Reed Overcame 8-Figure Debt

Ian Somerhalder is going over the rules of business.

The Rules of Attraction star shared insight into how he and wife Nikki Reed bounced back from a bad business deal that left them under a mountain of debt.

“I retired from acting seven years ago,” Ian exclusively told E! News' Will Marfuggi at the Beverage Forum in Manhattan Beach, Calif., on April 28. “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.”

Specifically, he shared that “it all came crashing down” after he made eight figures of personal guarantees to a bank for an unnamed clean energy company.

Years later, he credits the Twilight actress with helping them reach financial stability.

“Eight figures is a hard hole to climb out of,” he 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.”