Tragic Details About The Cast Of Modern Family

While the cast of "Modern Family" made the world laugh for 11 years straight, they dealt with several personal struggles. During a 2025 appearance on Jesse Tyler Ferguson's "Dinner's On Me" podcast, Rico Rodriguez revealed the tragic reason he almost left "Modern Family" after Season 8. The former child actor shared that his father, Roy Rodriguez, passed away shortly after they finished filming. As the then-18-year-old actor processed the unimaginable loss, he was unsure whether he could return to the sitcom for another season. "I mean, the patriarch of our family is gone, and he was the biggest motivator. He was all of our ideas," Rico shared of his feelings at the time. 

However, he ultimately decided to return because he wanted to continue honoring all the hard work he and his father had put into the beloved sitcom. Ty Burrell similarly lost his father, Gary Burrell, at a young age. In a 2020 Facebook video for the American Cancer Society, Ty shared that he was around 21 when his 49-year-old dad died of cancer in 1989. While stressing the importance of cancer research, Ty asserted that his family had experienced how "brutal" the disease was. Speaking to the Scotsman in 2014, Ty shared that his father's death prompted him to become an actor, saying, "A month after my dad passed away, I finally worked up the nerve to go into a theatre class." Throughout their career and beyond, several other "Modern Family" cast members have similarly overcome tough situations.

Sarah Hyland's life has been full of tragic details. In a 2012 interview with Seventeen Magazine, the former child actor revealed that her father had given her his kidney to help her overcome the complications caused by kidney dysplasia, a condition she had since birth. However, in a 2018 interview with Self Magazine, Hyland revealed that the life-saving transplant had stopped working around 2016 as her body began to reject the organ. 

Although she subsequently began dialysis treatment, doctors soon realized it wasn't sufficient and she would have to undergo a second kidney transplant with her younger brother's kidney. Hyland confessed that although she knew she had no control over how her body would handle her father's kidney, she was still "depressed" when it didn't provide long-term results. Moreover, the "Geek Charming" actor was unsure if she wanted to have a second transplant, sharing, "I was contemplating suicide, because I didn't want to fail my little brother like I failed my dad." 

Hyland also opened up about her feelings from the time, saying, "I had gone through [my whole life] of always being a burden, of always having to be looked after, having to be cared for." She shared a similar sentiment when she appeared on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" in 2019, admitting that she had grown weary of enduring chronic pain for over twenty years and not knowing when she would have a good day. At one point, she had even started to mentally craft letters to loved ones explaining the reasoning for suicide. Ultimately, though, Hyland improved her mental health and underwent the second transplant in September 2017.

Ariel Winter's relationship with her mom, Crystal Workman, has been extremely strained. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in 2017, the former child actor claimed that her mother would control her food intake and bar her from making friends with women because she believed Winter should solely see them as competitors. Winter also said that Workman dressed her in body-hugging clothes that were not age-appropriate, and made her look far older than she was. Additionally, she felt that Workman would have no qualms about her doing a sex scene at a younger age. 

Winter's "Modern Family" on-set teacher, Sharon Sacks, shared that her former pupil's diet mainly consisted of boiled chicken and cucumber, which were insufficient for a teen. As a result, Sacks ordered extra food on set under her name to provide adequate nutrition to the then-child actor. Further, the teacher stated that Winter's mother would also take her out for parties that lasted until the early hours of the morning, completely disregarding her early call times. 

As People noted, a transcript from a 2012 hearing set to determine whether Workman or Winter's adult sister, Shanelle Gray, should have custody of her, revealed another detail of Workman's alleged abuse, alleging, "The child is, apparently, slapped, hit, pushed – not so as to leave marks. Mother is smart enough not to do that." Moreover, the transcript revealed that Workman's unprofessional behavior on the sets of "Modern Family" had supposedly almost cost Winter the job. In 2015, Winter took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to happily announce that she had emancipated from her mother.

Speaking on "In Depth with Graham Bensinger" in 2024, Eric Stonestreet opened up about his father Vince Stonestreet's leukemia diagnosis. At one point, doctors informed Vince that he would not make it through the month if he didn't have a weekly transfusion. Although Eric desperately wanted his father to get the recommended medical treatment, he also felt that it was selfish to keep him going for the sake of their family. 

So, when Vince told him his body couldn't take any more, Eric abided by his decision and let him stop the treatment. "The Loft" actor teared up as he recalled how his father hadn't lost his sense of humor in his final months and still laughed when he heard the sound of his beloved mini cannon going off. The little instrument was a favorite of Vince's, and his family made sure to use it when he was taken away to the funeral home. 

In a 2015 interview with Cure Today, Eric revealed that both his grandfathers had died of cancer. Additionally, his mother, Jamey Stonestreet's, uterine cancer diagnosis had led doctors to discover that she also had kidney cancer. During his chat with Bensinger, Eric shared that although he was living in Los Angeles at the time of the second diagnosis, he still called his mother up daily so that he could lighten the mood with some jokes. With treatment and her family's support, Jamey eventually became cancer-free. Eric has used his experiences with cancer to create the Ready. Raise. Rise. Campaign to promote cancer research and even worked with Stand Up 2 Cancer.

According to The Washington Post, Sofía Vergara once shared that her family required bodyguard protection in Colombia because they were considered influential. However, her 27-year-old brother, Rafael Vergara, once ventured out without security and was fatally shot in a botched kidnapping. Reflecting on the life-altering tragedy in a 2024 Variety interview, Sofía admitted, "It destroyed my family." She continued, "It destroyed my mom. It changed our lives completely." 

Speaking to Parade in July 2011, the "Griselda" star shared that Rafael's untimely passing had a grave impact on her younger brother, Julio Vergara, too. Sofía noted that Julio shared a tight-knit bond with Rafael, and he hadn't processed the grief from his passing when he went off to college in Michigan. There, he developed an alcohol dependence that eventually became a drug addiction. The Colombian-American actor nearly teared up as she opened up about Julio, saying, "Now he's like another person. To see somebody dying over 10 years, little by little, that's the worst punishment." 

She was still hopeful about his future as she shared that he would soon move to Colombia to seek treatment. However, in the following month, Star Magazine reported that Julio was getting deported from the United States after being arrested around 30 times over a decade (via Radar Online). In her Parade interview, Sofía opened up about how her life's hardships had shaped her, saying, "With so many bad things happening, it creates a tough skin. You just have to take a deep breath and keep on going—if not for yourself, then for everybody you love."

A tragic detail about Julie Bowen's life is that she had an eating disorder when she was a teen. During a 2022 appearance on the "Quitters" podcast, Bowen opened up about how she viewed her body in a negative light at the time, admitting, "I felt a lot of shame about my body. I didn't look like a girl, I just looked like a greasy, blobby thing and I really didn't like it." Bowen eventually started using her eating disorder to cope with her anxiety and depression. 

Meanwhile, during an appearance on "The Tamron Hall Show," the "Happy Gilmore" actor shared that a curvier body symbolized a lack of control to her as a teen, adding, "That you were too much, and that to be good meant staying inside the lines — literally and figuratively." However, she eventually realized that wasn't the case and worked through her eating disorder. Reid Ewing, who played Dylan on "Modern Family," similarly opened up about his experiences with body dysmorphia in a 2015 HuffPost article. 

He recalled some of his inner monologue from the time he was in his late teens, writing, "No one is allowed to be this ugly. It's unacceptable." Speaking to BBC's Newsbeat in 2015, Ewing shared that as a 16-year-old, he secretly hoped he would get into a car crash so doctors would have an excuse to restructure his face. In his HuffPost piece, he revealed that he got cheek implants at 19, which only made him feel worse in his skin. After several dissatisfactory experiences, Ewing realized he never required any cosmetic procedure in the first place.