Tragic Details About Sarah Hyland

The following article contains references to suicide, mental illness, sexual assault, and domestic violence.

Following the conclusions of wholesome family comedies of the aughts, such as "Everybody Loves Raymond" and "8 Simple Rules," "Modern Family" filled a sitcom-shaped hole in our lives when it debuted at the end of the decade. There was no shortage of memeworthy moments in the hit show's 11-year run, with some of the most memorable scenes involving hapless patriarch Phil Dunphy (Ty Burrell) imparting his Phil's-osophy to his unamused daughter Haley, played by Sarah Hyland. The cast has gone on to experience varying levels of success since the sitcom ended in 2020. But for all the laughs, there was considerable tragedy behind the scenes.

Behind Haley's infamous eye rolls and sardonic one-liners, Hyland was struggling with severe health problems and personal demons throughout filming. Despite all the turmoil and trauma, she has reflected on her struggles with profundity and gratitude while embracing the healing powers of self-care. "I think it's really about keeping your mental, emotional, and physical realities in balance, because you know they're all tied together; when one of them is off, everything else feels off, too," she told Allure in 2019. "I think finding that balance is where the true epitome of self-love lies."

The star has been through a lot, but she's come out the other side and is now living life to the fullest. Get the Kleenex ready as we run down tragic details about Sarah Hyland.

Sarah Hyland was born with kidney dysplasia. After suffering from kidney failure, she had her first transplant in 2012, when she was 21. Her father donated the kidney. Opening up about her chronic illness for the first time following the surgery, Hyland told Seventeen that she was grateful to get a second chance. "My dad gave me a freakin' kidney!" she enthused.

But the chronic illness took its toll on the actor's body when she was filming "Modern Family," and she would frequently have to lie down between takes. "I would be in a lot of pain a lot of the time," she told ABC News. "If I didn't get, like, 12 hours of sleep ... It felt, like, none at all." As such, she has little recollection of filming some episodes of the hit sitcom.

A few years later, her body rejected her father's kidney, and she went on dialysis for the first time. Despite doctors' attempts to save the kidney, Hyland had to undergo a second transplant in 2017, this time with a kidney her brother Ian donated. The failure of the first transplant left her feeling intense guilt. "When a family member gives you a second chance at life, and it fails, it almost feels like it's your fault," she told Self. "It's not. But it does." The second transplant was successful, and Hyland must take medication for the rest of her life to manage her illness.

As the #MeToo movement gained momentum in 2018, Sarah Hyland opened up about being a sexual assault survivor. On X, then known as Twitter, she revealed that she was assaulted by a male friend on New Year's Eve during her senior year of high school. She didn't report the attack out of fear of not being believed. "Everyone was drunk," she recalled. "He broke into the bathroom I was in ... I thought no one would believe me. I didn't want to be called dramatic. After all, I didn't say no. Shock can do that to a person."

Along with fellow actor Busy Phillips and TV personality Padma Lakshmi, Hyland decided to go public with the ordeal when Brett Kavanaugh was accused of sexual assault. Hyland used the hashtag #whyIdidntreport to raise awareness of the myriad complex reasons why many survivors don't initially report assaults.

Hyland has highlighted the importance of self-care in the recovery process and partnered with the organization SHE RECOVERS to aid other women who have survived abuse. As she told Refinery29 in 2020, she is learning to be kinder to herself, having struggled with sudden emotional outbursts in the aftermath of her multiple traumas. "I still find myself being like, 'Oh, why did I just explode out of nowhere?'" she reflected. "I realize it's tied to certain things, and it's an endless battle of correcting yourself and having self-love. Self-care is an extension of self-love."

Sarah Hyland began dating fellow actor Matt Prokop in 2008. Five years later, the couple split following an alleged prolonged period of domestic abuse. In 2014, Hyland was granted a permanent restraining order against Prokop after he became enraged over her outfit choice and choked her while yelling misogynistic obscenities. "His grip was so tight that I could not breathe or speak," she said in court documents obtained by TMZ. "I was scared and in fear for my life." He was also reported to have repeatedly threatened Hyland and her dog and sent her disturbing messages. Moreover, Prokop's mom was allegedly complicit in the abuse, threatening Hyland that her son would kill himself if she left him — and it would supposedly be her fault.

Appearing on "The Meredith Vieira Show" with her dog that year, Hyland opened up about the ordeal. "'The only way out is through,'" she said, quoting the poet Robert Frost. "People have to go through things in order to become the person that they are today. And that's that."

Having developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after leaving Prokop, Hyland spoke to Refinery29 about the lasting impact of domestic violence. "A lot of people like to think that once you're out of an abusive situation, it ends there, but it doesn't," she said. "The emotional trauma and scars on the soul stay there, and they impact you for the rest of your life if you don't get help."

In 2014, Sarah Hyland and her fellow "Modern Family" cast members took a trip down under for the filming of the Season 5 vacation episode, "Australia." While in Sydney, Hyland attended a Qantas event where she was approached by a male fan who allegedly proceeded to grope her breast. "Don't touch me there," she apparently told the fan, according to the Daily Mail.

The assault reduced Hyland to tears, and she left the party early as a result. She was also photographed looking severely distraught as she was driven away. The actor later took to X to explain what had happened and apologized for rushing off during the event. "Sorry to all the fans outside the #qantas event that I didn't get to say hi to," she wrote, "but I had to leave due to an inappropriate touch of a fan."

The alleged perpetrator was arrested and charged with indecent assault by Australian police. "A man has now been charged following the alleged indecent assault of a woman yesterday," a New South Wales Police spokesperson explained to the Mail. "It is alleged the man indecently assaulted the 23-year-old woman near Hickson Road, The Rocks, at about 7:50 p.m." Months later, the unnamed man who reportedly assaulted Hyland escaped a criminal conviction due to having a mental disability, in line with Australia's Mental Health Act.

2018 ended on a tragic note for Sarah Hyland when her 14-year-old cousin, Trevor Canaday, was killed by a drunk driver while riding in his father's car. Hyland's uncle was also injured in the crash, but made a full recovery. The perpetrator, Jeffrey Eggeling, drove off from the scene, but was later arrested by Omaha police.

Distraught over her cousin's death, Hyland took to X to call Eggeling a murderer, whom she hoped would meet a fitting end. "JEFFERY EGGERLING had two prior DUI's," she wrote, "and tried to RUN from the scene of the crime after hitting my Uncle's car SO fast that my 14 yr old cousin, who was wearing a seatbelt, was ejected from the vehicle." The following year, Eggeling was sentenced to 43 to 53 years in prison.

In the aftermath of her loss, Hyland posted a link to a GoFundMe for Canaday on her X account. However, she was heavily criticized, with some X users arguing that it was inappropriate of the sitcom star to ask her followers to help pay for Canaday's funeral costs. She also claimed in a separate X post that she was on the receiving end of a barrage of hate comments relating to her cousin's death. As a result of incessant bullying, she temporarily deleted her account. "You guys finally did it," she wrote in another tweet. "Your horrible negative ignorant words have broken me. Happy? Staying offline for a while."

Ever since her various surgeries for kidney dysplasia, Sarah Hyland has struggled with body image. The frequent invasive procedures have changed her body, leaving her with scars and a protruding abdomen, which she affectionately dubs her "KUPA." Subsequently, she has suffered meltdowns during wardrobe fittings due to feeling self-conscious about her figure. "There have been days when I'm either like, 'I'm gonna wear my tightest jeans ... I don't care if I get papped because I look f***ing good,'" she told Cosmopolitan, "or, 'Is there anything I own that's looser? Because even these sweatpants are making me look fat right now.'"

Such issues have been exacerbated by frequent body shaming from online trolls. In 2018, she shared a bikini snap on Instagram and was swiftly slammed for supposedly being too skinny. Hyland has discussed her difficulties in gaining weight due to illness, with extended periods of bed rest leading her to lose significant muscle mass. Her husband, Wells Adams, has repeatedly defended her against body-shaming trolls; for instance, when a commenter told Hyland to "eat a donut," he aptly replied, "Eat s***."

In 2019, Hyland revealed that she wore two pairs of Spanx under her dress while attending the Vanity Fair Oscars party. Some argued that she was perpetuating toxic diet culture by wearing the constrictive garments; however, given her past comments about her changing body post-surgery, it's likely that she wore two pairs of Spanx to conceal her aforementioned KUPA.

When her first kidney transplant failed, Sarah Hyland was racked with guilt to the point of feeling suicidal. Namely, she was terrified her body would reject her second transplant, which her brother donated. During an appearance on "The Ellen Show" in 2019, she divulged that, at her lowest, she wrote goodbye letters to loved ones as she contemplated taking her own life. 

She has also suffered from severe depression as a result of chronic illness. The fact that she feared asking for help only made this worse. "[B]ut once I realized I wasn't going to get out of it on my own, I relied a lot on friends and family to help me," she told Allure. "I had to do something to transfer those dark, negative emotions into something lighter. It was like trying to find my way out of a maze." Although Hyland told DeGeneres that she was able to recover from these thoughts on her own through intense soul-searching, she urged others with suicidal ideation to open up about their struggles to someone they can trust. "[J]ust saying it out loud helped immensely," she explained, "because I kept it to myself for months and months at a time."

In 2020, Hyland shared a glamorous, seemingly happy photo to her Instagram story (via Teen Vogue) alongside the caption, "a moment where you felt your worst but had to fake being okay for a pic," highlighting that depression has many faces.

Endometriosis is a chronic illness characterized by tissue growth outside the uterus, leading to issues with fertility and around a 50% greater risk of developing ovarian cancer. It's considered one of the most painful medical conditions. Yet, doctors have been known to routinely dismiss the pain of women who experience endometriosis symptoms, something which critics attribute to medical misogyny. Prior to her diagnosis, Sarah Hyland found herself on the receiving end of these dismissive attitudes. "It affects so many women," she told Self, "and so many women go undiagnosed ... A lot of doctors think that when you're in pain, you're not really in pain, that you're just being dramatic, that it's all happening in your head. I've been through that."

In 2018, she underwent laparoscopic surgery for endometriosis followed by surgery for a hernia weeks later. "Laparoscopic [surgery is] one of the most painful things I've ever been through in my life," she added in Self. The condition causes Hyland to experience frequent cramping, and she will likely have to undergo further surgeries in the future to remove additional endometriosis lesions. 

As she explained on "The Ellen Show" in 2019, she lives in constant pain every day. "[Y]ou don't know when you're going to have the next good day. It's really, really hard," she said. That year, a source told E! that Hyland's husband, Wells Adams, had been by her side supporting her throughout her health struggles.

Haley Dunphy may have been famed for her long locks, but behind the scenes, Sarah Hyland was struggling with yet another change in her appearance. As a result of her chronic illnesses, she began experiencing hair loss. Accordingly, she often wore extensions while filming "Modern Family."

In 2019, she debuted her short curls. Initially, rumors began circulating that Hyland was trying to bring the perm back into fashion. But as she told Allure that year, this was in fact her natural hair. "I always think it's funny because my hair has been short since, like, 2013. I just wear extensions for Haley now," she explained. "I didn't know just how curly it was going to be, though. ... I've had a lot of my hair fall out from being on medications and all that stuff ... [Now] I'm finally getting all this new growth."

After presenting as someone with long, sleek tresses for so many years, unveiling her natural hair was bittersweet for Hyland — a rebirth of sorts. "My hair that's growing back now is much curlier than what it used to be. It's like I'm 4 years old now, I guess," she mused to Refinery29. Now, caring for her curls has become an extension of her self-love routine, as she is learning to navigate life with her natural tresses.

Throughout her health issues and trauma, Sarah Hyland was supported by her beloved dogs, Boo and Carl. "[D]ogs are the greatest thing ever to happen in the entire world," she declared to "Good Morning America." Opening up about her cherished fur babies in a 2018 interview with Us Weekly, Hyland joked that there was a power struggle between Boo and Carl, with the latter being a big softie who is somewhat dominated by Boo. When Hyland began dating her now-husband, Wells Adams, in 2017, the dogs got to know Adams' own pups. After some initial doggy brawls, they became a big extended canine family.

Carl had his own Instagram, where Hyland and Wells would offer fans a glimpse into the pooch's charmed life. In 2021, the couple had their last Christmas with Carl, and Hyland revealed that she loved nothing more than pampering her dogs during the festive season. "The things that wow dogs and pets for the holidays are lots of toys and lots of treats," she enthused to ABC Audio.

Sadly, Hyland suffered yet another loss when Carl died weeks before Christmas 2022. "You were our protector, our best hug giver, and the light of our lives," she wrote in an emotional Instagram post. "Thank you for being the greatest friend anyone could ask for. I'll love you forever. You'll always be my best big boy ... We'll cuddle in our sleep."

If you or anyone you know needs help with mental health issues, or may be the victim of domestic abuse or sexual assault, contact the relevant resources below:

• The Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.

• The National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.

• The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).