“Modern Family” alum Ariel Winter is opening up about her traumatic childhood stardom.
The actor was only 11 years old when she was cast in 2009 in the ABC sitcom as teenage introvert Alex Dunphy. While she found fame and recognition for her performance throughout the show’s 11-year run, Winter recalled Hollywood being “a dark place” in a wide-ranging interview Thursday with the Daily Mail.
“I am familiar with male predators because I worked in Hollywood at a young age,” Winter told the outlet. “I don’t wanna say too much about it, but by the time I was on a laptop and cell phone, I was getting inappropriate messages from older men, and it caused trauma.”
“The experiences I had in person and online as a child have affected me so deeply that I’ve had to go to therapy for it,” the actor, now 27, continued. “The movie and TV industry is a dark place.”
Winter, who left Los Angeles after “Modern Family” ended in 2020, recently told People that the city “holds some not-great memories” for her. She said she was “pushed into the industry” at 4 years old by her “stage mom,” Chrisoula “Crystal” Workman, who wanted her to be famous.
Winter was removed from her home in 2012 following abuse allegations against her mother, who was reportedly accused in court documents of pushing, hitting and slapping Winter — and allegedly imposing such a strict diet that Winter’s co-stars would secretly give her food. Workman was also accused of dressing Winter in highly inappropriate outfits for her age.
The Department of Children and Family Services later confirmed the emotional abuse allegations, and guardianship over Winter was transferred to her adult sister, Shanelle Gray. Workman has denied the allegations; Winter was emancipated from her mother in 2015.
Winter, seen here at the 2021 Annual HollyShorts Film Festival, has since left Los Angeles.
Michael Tran/Getty Images
Winter has also opened up about the online harassment she endured during her teenage years, telling People in May that she had to endure “grown people” describing her in articles as looking like a “like a fat slut.”
“I mean, I was 14,” she told the outlet. “It totally damaged my self-esteem.”
Winter has since found purpose in teaming up with the nonprofit SOSA (or Safe from Online Sex Abuse), which targets sexual predators online and lures them into the open. Winter recently posed as a 12-year-old decoy for a sting operation in Oklahoma City.
“It can be scary at times pretending to be 12 and [talking] to older men, but it’s validating to put away predators that have been harming children,” she told the Daily Mail.
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“Growing up in the entertainment industry, I’ve been the girl we are trying to save,” she said. “It’s vital to me to help protect young women from the experiences I endured in my own life.”
Need help? Visit RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website.