The Vampire Diaries alum, 42, shared a lengthy tribute to the Twilight star, 33, via Instagram on Friday, May 21, while belatedly celebrating her Monday, May 17, birthday. “This mama. This human,” he began. “I owe you such gratitude for it all.”

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Somerhalder went on to divulge details about the ordeal that left him owing large sums of money. “What many of you may not know is this woman is the reason I was actually able to build @brothersbondbourbon,” he wrote of his whiskey company with former costar Paul Wesley. “I’ve never disclosed this publicly, but this woman worked selflessly for 2yrs to build me out of a terrible business situation I got myself into. Before Nik and I got together I built a company while shooting TVD that was important to me. I invested heavily, I made huge personal guarantees to banks. However due to greed and fraud within that company and fraudulent activities from our biggest customer, not to mention the temporary collapse of the oil and gas industry – I was left in an EIGHT-FIGURE hole.”

The V-Wars alum attempted to solve his problems by working more, but Reed eventually stepped in to handle things once it became too overwhelming. “It was awful. A true nightmare day in and day out,” he recalled. “I had to travel the world weekly to pay for massive monthly six-figure bank notes and ended up in the hospital 4 times in 2 years. This woman here decided that she didn’t want to see her husband ruin his body/mind/spirit and pulled up her bootstraps and got down in the trenches assembling a team to get to the negotiating table to find a way out. She devoted her life to getting me out of that mess and it almost killed her along the way. I am where I am BECAUSE of this woman. Brothers Bond Bourbon is actually here today because of this woman. I was able to start my life over because of this woman.”

Somerhalder applauded the actress for sticking by him through his tough times. “Needless to say it’s been the most eye opening and truly humbling experience. Painful as hell but as a family SHE got us through. It’s unreal,” he continued. “I owe her my health, my life and my sanity. Brothers Bond for me, is the physical representation, the manifestation to build a company designed to do good in the world by bringing people together and investing in our collective future to stop climate change and change the mental and physical health of this nation and this world. I honor this woman and appreciate her more than anyone I could ever imagine.”

The actor concluded by wishing Reed a happy birthday. “Happy 33 you incredible angel of a person,” he gushed. “The light you radiate into our household and this planet is beyond inspiring. You are a superwoman. You made it possible for me to live, build my dreams, and to start my life over. The world needs people like you. Love, Ian aka Baby Daddy.”

Somerhalder and the Sleepy Hollow alum tied the knot in April 2015. They welcomed daughter Bodhi in July 2017.

This story originally appeared on: US Magazine - Author:Erin Crabtree