Sofia Vergara gets a less than welcome surprise at the Magic Mike XXL premiere.
Sofia Vergara wasn't met with the usual universal round of adoration at Thursday night's Magic Mike XXL premiere in Los Angeles.
Instead, the 42-year-old Modern Family star was hit with a sea of pro-life protesters while supporting her fiance Joe Manganiello's latest film. The group was holding banners and signs begging the actress to give her frozen embryos with ex-fiance Nick Loeb a chance of survival.
Vergara and Loeb have been in a highly publicized legal battle over two frozen embryos that were created using his sperm and her eggs while the two were still in a relationship. In the wake of their breakup last May, Loeb is suing his ex, claiming that the actress wishes to have to embryos destroyed, whereas he wants the legal right to attempt to bring the embryos to life via surrogate.
WATCH: Sofia Vergara Talks Nick Loeb Frozen Embryo Battle -- 'Obviously, He Has a Problem With Me'
"Lives created should be lives protected," one sign read. "Sofia: Unfreeze your daughters. Unfreeze your heart," another one stated.
In May, Vergara opened up to Howard Stern about the controversial lawsuit on his SiriusXM show.
"More than a mother, [a child] needs a loving relationship of parents that you know, get along, that don't hate each other,” she said. “I don't hate him [Loeb] but obviously he has a problem with me. … I wouldn't imagine anyone saying to bring to the world kids that already have everything set up wrong for them. It'd be so selfish."
Loeb also talked about the lawsuit in May during an appearance on the Today show, when he told Hoda Kotb his lawsuit has nothing to do with Vergara's celebrity status, but rather "legal, ethical concepts" and the "two lives that have already been created." He was granted permission on May 22 to file an amended lawsuit allowing him to seek custody of the two female embryos.
"To toss them aside is no different than if they've actually been born," he told Kotb.
But Vergara's lawyer Fred Silberberg told ET in April that Loeb's case has "no merit."
"Vergara has never suggested that she wished to have the embryos destroyed," Silberberg said. "She has always maintained that they be kept frozen, a fact of which Loeb and his counsel have always been aware, despite Loeb's statements to the contrary."
Vergara has accused her ex of exploiting her for her fame.
"I promote all my movies, all my work," Vergara said on Good Morning America in May. "But I don't like promoting my private life and I don't understand why this person ... I don't want to allow this person to take more advantage of my career and try to promote himself and get press for this. ... It shouldn't be out there for people to give their opinion when there's nothing to talk about. There's papers signed. There is a court date. He shouldn't be creating something so ugly out of nothing."
NEWS: Nick Loeb Defends Lawsuit Against Vergara -- 'I've Always Wanted to Be a Father'
Watch the video below for more on the exes' complicated legal battle.
