Who was Giancarlo Esposito married to? All about wife and kids as Breaking Bad star reveals plotting his murder to financially support the family

Actor Giancarlo Esposito of Breaking Bad recently made a guest visit on SiriusXM's Jim and Sam Show. During the show, he talked about a period in his life when he was so poor that he thought of planning his murder to get life insurance and support his wife and daughters.

Giancarlo Esposito, who was recently seen in the hit Netflix series The Gentleman, alongside Theo James, sat down with Jim Norton and Sam Roberts to talk about the premiere of his AMC series Parish. Esposito explained his character in his new show was an embodiment of his financial struggles over the course of his career, where he filed for bankruptcy and even had his house foreclosed a couple of times.

Esposito recalled asking his then-wife about the insurance as her father had experience in the field. Giancarlo Esposito was married to his ex-wife, Joy McManigal, for 20 years before they divorced in 2015.

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Giancarlo Esposito has four daughters with ex-wife Joy McManigal

According to her LinkedIn, Joy McManigal, who describes herself as a life coach, event planner, career counselor, and philanthropist, graduated from Stanford University, where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science.

Subsequently, she attended the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. From 1996 to 2018, she was a creative partner at Bhakti Productions, her husband Giancarlo Esposito's production company. She founded the Good You Community, which helps young adults struggling with mental health.

Esposito shares four girls with his ex-wife Joy McManigal. The Gentleman star’s daughter, Ruby Esposito, is a visual artist, filmmaker, and creative director. According to her website, she worked as the second unit director/assistant director on the miniseries, The Broken and the Bad, hosted by her father.

Esposito's second daughter, Kale Lyn Esposito, was born in 1998. According to her Instagram, she has an interest in photography and often shares throwback pics of her family and documents the events she attends with her dad, including the Emmy award ceremony in 2021.

The couple's third daughter, Syrlucia Esposito, graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont in February 2023. Her public Instagram is replete with pictures of her travels. Of all the daughters, Shayne Lyra Esposito, 26, is the least public about her life. While her account is private, her bio shows support for Black Lives Matter.

Talking about his daughters, Giancarlo Esposito told Best Self in 2015—

“They have taught me, each in their way, the greatest gifts of my life — to pay more attention, to listen more, to respect women on a whole other level and to come clean. And they call me out all the time."

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Giancarlo Esposito opens up about his financial struggles over the course of his career

During a recent guest appearance on SiriusXM’s Jim and Sam Show, Giancarlo Esposito revealed the lengths he would go to ensure his family's wellbeing. Esposito, who was financially struggling throughout his career told the hosts he considered "self-annihilation" so his family could support themselves by cashing in his insurance checks.

12 minutes into the show, Esposito recalled asking his wife, whose father was an insurance agent if one could collect the funds after a suicide. He said—

“My way out in my brain was, ‘hey, do you get life insurance if someone commits suicide? Do they get the bread?’ My wife had no idea why I was asking this stuff,” recalled Esposito. “I started scheming."

He added—

"If I got somebody to knock me off, death by misadventure, [my family] would get the insurance. I had four kids. I wanted them to have a life. It was a hard moment in time. I literally thought of self-annihilation so they could survive. That’s how low I was.”

Giancarlo Esposito stated that Breaking Bad was the light at the end of the tunnel that helped him reclaim his self-assurance.

Though he had been working regularly since the ’80s, Esposito often held brief spots in multiple TV dramas until he was cast in Breaking Bad. He will next be seen on AMC's new crime drama Parish.