Nikki Reed Doesn’t Want to Be ‘Lumped In’ With Ian Somerhalder’s Retirement From Acting (Exclusive)

Although Ian Somerhalder isn’t retired from acting, that doesn’t mean his wife, Nikki Reed, has the same plans.

“Ian, at one point, made a very definitive statement. And I just want to say right here that I don’t want to be lumped in with his definitive statements,” Reed, 45, exclusively told Us Weekly during a joint interview with Somerhalder, 36, at the 2024 Environmental Media Association Awards Gala.

Reed clarified that Somerhalder’s plans to stop appearing on screen are his own, adding, “I feel like there are no doors that are ever closed. But it’s just not on the forefront of my mind right now. I’m running two companies.”

The couple’s busy schedule, which includes their companies The Absorption Company and BaYou with Love, hasn’t allowed for Reed to act in new projects — but that doesn’t mean she won’t in the future.

“We have three companies together and are raising a family. I don’t think we would have done it this way. It’s just sort of the way the cookie crumbled,” Somerhalder explained.

Reed added, “I’m working over 90 hours a week right now. When you realize that you can wake up and feel passion and purpose for your job — and that is the way that we feel about our companies — it’s really hard to have your attention pulled anywhere else.”

She continued: “I wake up every day so excited at the shift and change that I hope is being created by building these businesses that are actually here to make the world a better place. It’s just really hard.”

According to Somerhalder, he and Reed “check in 97 times a day” with each other about their joint professional endeavors, adding, “We’re going for it. We’re just in it.”

Somerhalder and Reed started dating in 2014 and got engaged just six months later. Two years after their 2015 nuptials, the couple expanded their family with daughter Bodhi. After becoming a mother, Reed suggested that she and Somerhalder move away from Hollywood.

“To be fully transparent about it, I really did not want to be in the public eye anymore,” Reed, who rose to stardom for roles in movies such as Thirteen and Twilight, told Santa Barbara Magazine in 2022. “California has the ability to offer seclusion, but you can also be in driving distance to these major cities at the drop of a hat.”

Reed, who welcomed a son with Somerhalder in June 2023, built a sustainable farm with help from her husband.

“[I love] walking through the farm with kids and dogs and family,” the actor, who is known for playing Damon Salvatore on The Vampire Diaries, told E! News in November 2023. “Every stop, you’re pulling off of trees or off of bushes, pulling up out of the ground and feeding everyone as you’re moving through the farm.”

That same month, Somerhalder elaborated on his departure from acting, telling the outlet, “I love what I did for a really long time. I love making films, I just did it for so long. We had an amazing run. But this is our 2.0 version — about to be 3.0 version.”

Reed, however, isn’t done with acting quite yet. While she isn’t ruling out a return, Reed and Somerhalder are currently focused on raising awareness about sustainable ways of living through their various businesses and support for causes such as the Environmental Media Association Awards.

“When you work in the spaces that we work in, there’s no greater honor and no evening that I would rather be a part of. Nothing is going to make me take off my cowboy boots like coming to the EMAs because the conversations that you have and seeing the change that comes out of evenings like this. Everybody is here driven towards one shared mission,” she told Us earlier this month. “I made a joke earlier, but it’s actually true. You can have conversations with people that actually want to talk about the same things that you want to talk about. It’s not just Ian and I sitting across the table from one another talking about soil, which we love. A lot of people here want to talk about soil. It’s pretty amazing.”

Somerhalder praised the meaningful work that has been made in part thanks to the Environmental Media Association, adding, “You can have all the awareness you want, but if it’s not coupled with action, then the needle doesn’t move. There’s a lot of action that comes out of this evening and with the people here, they create and they’re very actionable people. Whether it’s from a community perspective or a policy perspective.”

He continued: “EMA punches way above the weight of most organizations. If you want real change, you have to work in a collaborative spirit. A lot of organizations, unfortunately, act as islands unto themselves and that doesn’t move the needle so it’s that collaborative spirit coupled with action. It’s really powerful.”

With reporting by Carly Konsker