Ariel Winter, best known for playing Alex Dunphy on Modern Family, has officially left Los Angeles—but not the entertainment industry.
In a candid new interview with People, the 27-year-old actress opened up about her decision to walk away from Hollywood and the personal journey that led her there. For Ariel, it wasn’t about abandoning acting—it was about reclaiming peace after years of being in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
“It was just everywhere,” she said, referring to the constant media attention during her teenage years. “It was every headline I read about myself, like, grown people writing articles about me saying how I looked terrible or pregnant or like a fat slut. I mean, I was 14. It totally damaged my self-esteem.”
From online bullying to intrusive speculation about her body, Ariel said she struggled with the nonstop criticism. “I understood what it was like to be hated,” she explained. “No matter what I was going through, I was a target. It made it very difficult to look at myself in the mirror and go, ‘I love this version of me.’”
Alongside public scrutiny, Ariel faced painful challenges at home. At 14, she was removed from the custody of her mother, Chrisoula Workman, following allegations of abuse—which her mother has publicly denied. Ariel was placed in the care of her older sister, Shanelle Gray, who later became her legal guardian.
“I went on to have a great rest of my teenage years thanks to being under her custody,” Ariel said. Though she chooses not to go into detail about her early family life, the scars are still there. “Honestly, it’s just my entire childhood,” she said. “It’s a really deep, painful, sore, sore part for me that’s so much deeper and bigger than I’ve ever felt ready to talk about.”
After Modern Family ended in April 2020, Ariel and her boyfriend, actor Luke Benward, made the decision to pack up and leave L.A. for good. The move gave her room to breathe and rediscover herself away from the chaos of Hollywood.
“I didn’t leave the industry,” she clarified. “I just left the city of L.A. It holds some not-great memories for me, and I’m young and never lived anywhere else, and thought, ‘Why not?’ If you’re no longer on a network show that shoots there, you don’t really have to be there, and if I get a network show, I can easily go back.”
These days, Ariel has found happiness in simpler things—like cooking and spending time with her six dogs. She’s also been exploring producing her own projects, launching a podcast, and developing a cooking show.
But perhaps most significantly, she’s dedicating time to a cause that hits close to home: protecting children from online predators. Inspired by the docuseries Undercover Underage, which follows the work of the organization SOSA (Safe From Online Sex Abuse), Ariel has become vocal about her own experience.
“I was just like, ‘God, I’d love to be a part of that,’” she said. In a comment on Instagram earlier this year, she revealed, “I’m a victim of grooming online and IRL [in real life] and CSA [child sex abuse].” She hasn’t gone into details publicly but shared how deeply the subject resonates.
“It just impacted me so deeply because I’d been that kid who’d been preyed upon online so many times,” she said. “Technically, yes, I’m a survivor. I’ve gone through some s–t. But a lot of people have gone through some s–t. Calling me a survivor takes away from what I’m here for, which is to help others and shine a spotlight on those that need it. More than anything, I want my story to be that she uses her platform for good. My journey to figuring things out and healing is now through helping other people. That’s all I care about.”
From child star to advocate, Ariel Winter is writing her next chapter on her own terms—and far from the bright lights of Hollywood.
