Ariel Winter was once known for little more than playing middle child Alex Dunphy on ABC’s hit Modern Family, but the sitcom’s finale aired half a decade ago from the 2025 TV schedule and the actress has since opened up about the kinds of struggles from her real life that Alex never quite experienced in the same way. There was public backlash against her despite being a child, and it took some encouragement from Sofia Vergara for her to get back on track during her ABC sitcom days.
The Modern Family vet has opened up about getting “inappropriate messages” from older men when she was still a minor, as well as the self-esteem crushing commentary on her looks while surrounded by the rest of the cast. More recently, Winter told People:
I was with them for so long and I started so young with them. I mean, I went through a lot of things and they were there for me through a lot of that. I know with my body image, Sofía [Vergara] was really helpful with me, because I could see she was somebody that I could relate to.
Ariel Winter went on to clarify that she’s “not at all comparing myself to her body,” but that the actress playing Gloria had a “similar” experience insofar as she began “developing early.” Alex and Gloria weren’t known as regular scene partners on Modern Family, but it’s clear that the stars’ behind-the-scenes relationship was quite meaningful to Winter at a vulnerable point in her life. She went on:
That was something that was hard for me. And getting to see her as a figure for that and having it be celebrated and a beautiful thing, that was amazing for me. And having her tell me, ‘Who gives a s—, really, what people say about it? It’s like, rock it — and here’s the ways to feel confident about it.’ That was helpful for me.
Sofia Vergara‘s support of course didn’t mean that Ariel Winter could immediately just turn off any troubling feelings, and the body-shaming from fans didn’t end overnight. Her “journey of self-healing” took some time, but she’s at least evidently comfortable with being open about how her experience affected her into her adult years. Winter also shouted out Ed O’Neill, who played Jay Pritchett, for having “great acting advice” for her. Modern Family was Winter’s first series regular gig.
Nowadays, Ariel Winter is landing roles that are not only quite different from Alex Dunphy, but also pretty dissimilar from her Law & Order: SVU role, which she tackled while Modern Family was still on the air. If you want to revisit her days as Alex, however, as she continued to deliver laughs on screen despite the messages she was getting off-screen, you can find the full series streaming with a Hulu subscription as well as a Peacock subscription.
Making the decision to actually move away from Hollywood was a game-changer, as she relocated from Los Angeles to Nashville, TN and said that L.A. wasn’t ever really her “vibe.” She has also had plenty of good things to say about her Modern Family experience, so the online comments didn’t entirely ruin all of her teen years from start to finish. The actress noted that Nolan Gould, who played little brother Luke, is one of her best friends, and memories of the time are so “ingrained” in her that she didn’t need mementoes to take from set.
Hopefully Ariel Winter continues to feel comfortable enough in her adult life to speak out about what she went through in her formative years. Playing a role that she landed at the age of eleven for eleven seasons of network television (with Modern Family running for a total of 250 episodes) is a lot to heap onto a young actor’s shoulders.
