Tragic Details About Modern Family Star Julie Bowen

On "Modern Family," Julie Bowen played a mom of three who had it all. Her character, Claire Dunphy, juggled motherhood, a thriving career, and a fun social life. In real life, though, Bowen found things tougher. The star experienced a devastating eating disorder at a young age, a struggle with anxiety, and relentless speculation about possible tension between her and her co-star Sofia Vergara.

"Every night I get a call or I get an email that says, 'So-and-so trash mag will be running a story that, and this week it was, 'You are icy to Sofia Vergara because you are jealous of her fame,'" Bowen, who repeatedly shut down feud rumors with her co-star, recalled on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" in 2016. "So I email her last night, and then we talk,'" she continued, sharing that Vergara suggested they demonstrate their friendship by letting Bowen borrow her top. "I don't know how those people stay in business when they just totally fabricate stories. They just make up whatever they want to make up," Bowen said of the relentless negative tabloid attention. But a few nasty rumors were a walk in the park compared to some of Bowen's other tragedies.

Though Julie Bowen's transformation has been stunning, she's been very open about the eating disorder she experienced as a teenager. Speaking on her "Quitters" podcast in 2022, Bowen confirmed she developed anorexia. "I was a very depressed and anxious teenager and 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," she said. The future actor took up running to cope and believed her eating disorder developed as a distraction from other mental health issues. "I didn't have time for anxiety anymore. [The body] goes into survival," she said about shifting her focus to her weight and running. "I couldn't stop managing my anxiety and my depression with this feeling this kind of clarity of starving," she added.

Speaking on "The Tamron Hall Show" the following year, Bowen spoke candidly again about how her disordered eating developed. "I interpreted being messy or making mistakes or having an ass or a little fat coming out of the top of your jeans is somehow a symbol that you couldn't contain yourself," she said. "A lot of what I was struggling with was puberty and hormones and not liking that feeling of changing," she added. Bowen's anorexia lasted years, though she praised her parents for helping her get the help she needed, which involved entering a treatment facility.

If you need help with an eating disorder, or know someone who does, help is available. Visit the National Eating Disorders Association website or contact NEDA's Live Helpline at 1-800-931-2237. You can also receive 24/7 Crisis Support via text (send NEDA to 741-741).

When Julie Bowen landed her "Modern Family" gig, she initially didn't feel worthy of the prestigious role. "I spent the first year or year and a half in 'Modern Family' being terrified because everybody there was so funny and so good at what they did," she recalled on "I Choose Me with Jennie Garth" in 2024. "I'm like, 'I don't belong here,'" she added.

The Maryland native also admitted she was never confident about her comedic chops, to the point she asked her team not to get her auditions for funny roles before she appeared on "Modern Family." They sent me out on comedy auditions. I was like, 'I can't tell a joke, I'm not funny — don't give me those three-jokes-a-page kind of things. I couldn't do them,'" the "Life of the Party" actor said during a 2024 appearance on "The Three Questions with Andy Richter." But Bowen credited her team for giving her the confidence to flex her comedy muscles. "My managers were always very supportive," she said, sharing they gave her a steer toward sitcom acting, which helped her land the role that made her a household name.

Julie Bowen found out the hard way how emotionally stressful divorce can be. "I've quit a marriage, and it's hard to talk about because it's not fair to him because he can't tell his side but that was really painful," she said on "Quitters" in 2022. In February 2018, Bowen filed for divorce from Scott Phillips, the father of her three children, after 13 years together. Though claimed in court documents that they'd been separated for a year prior. The two finalized their divorce seven months later.

In November 2017, the "Hysteria!" star admitted she and Phillips didn't always get along, and she'd gone to therapy to work through her issues. "I've spent a lot of time in excellent therapy and butting heads is part of life. Being perfect is not a good model for your children," she told Us Weekly. "They need to see that there's tension or arguments, they need to see those get resolved," she said. Shortly after, Bowen and Phillips had fans speculating about trouble in paradise after he didn't accompany his wife to the 2018 Emmys, even though the awards fell on their anniversary.

Bowen also suggested their split took a financial toll on her despite making millions from "Modern Family." "I did not go off and buy another house when 'Modern Family' was done," she said on "All Good Things Podcast with Jason Nash" in 2024, describing herself as being "California divorced." "A lot of my cast mates were like, 'Maybe I'll buy an island!' and I was like, 'Huh, I am not going to be doing that."

After successfully seeking treatment for her eating disorder, Julie Bowen was dealt another tragic blow years later when she was viciously body-shamed nine months after welcoming her twins. "I was in Hawaii, we were shooting 'Modern Family.' It was less than a year [after giving birth], and I still had, like, the baby gunk," she recalled on "The Tamron Hall Show" in 2023. During some downtime from shooting, Bowen wore a bikini to take a dip in the ocean. "No one was around, and by the time we got up to the room, there had been paparazzi in the rocks hidden away," she said. The "Hubie Halloween" star revealed trolls instantly began commenting on her body after seeing the candid photos online. "It was the nastiest. Like, 'What is wrong with her? This is disgusting,'" she said, sharing she saw articles drawing attention to her post-partum stomach and breasts. "I felt like I'd done something wrong."
Body image is something Bowen has long wrestled with. On "I Choose Me With Jennie Garth" in 2024, she admitted she never Googled herself and asked her kids not to either because negative comments have such an impact on her. "I said, 'I don't ever want to know if you see something. I recommend you don't Google me or yourselves ... I don't think it's a good idea. I think it's really unhealthy. But if you do, I don't need to hear about it because it's too upsetting,' which means I'm still vulnerable," Bowen shared, noting she'd spoken a lot about her lack of body confidence in therapy. "It's really hard to say, 'I am enough,'" she said.

Life as an actor who's regularly away for long stretches can take its toll on family life, and Julie Bowen's busy schedule has impacted the relationship she shares with her three sons. Appearing on "Today" in 2024, she tragically admitted she didn't have the most open communication with her kids. She noted their relationships were made more difficult because her boys were home in California while she was on the other side of the country. "Right now, because I'm working on the East Coast and they live in L.A., the only way I communicate with them is through Snapchat," she admitted.

Bowen also confessed her boys don't open up to her a lot about serious topics. "Basically, I'm in the desert right now. It's like I got dumped by three guys I was madly in love with. I'm like, 'Hey, I'm right in the kitchen,' and they never show up. It's as desperate as I ever felt in high school when you had a crush on a boy," she added of the strained relationship that developed as they got older.

The actor previously admitted to O, The Oprah Magazine in 2010 that, as a new mom, she found it hard not being with her kids constantly because of work commitments. "I'd be gone for three weeks, and when I thought about the boys, I panicked: I'm a terrible mother. John and Gus will forget me," she recalled, thinking of her newborn twins. But, thankfully, Bowen learned how to deal with mom guilt, knowing she needed to take time for herself too.