{"id":2481,"date":"2025-07-11T21:01:03","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T21:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/2481\/"},"modified":"2025-07-11T21:01:03","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T21:01:03","slug":"ariel-winter-talks-trauma-caused-by-modern-family-stardom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/2481\/","title":{"rendered":"Ariel Winter Talks Trauma Caused By \u2018Modern Family\u2019 Stardom"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cModern Family<\/a>\u201d alum Ariel Winter<\/a> is opening up about her traumatic childhood stardom.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> throughout the show\u2019s 11-year run, Winter recalled Hollywood being \u201ca dark place\u201d in a wide-ranging interview Thursday with the Daily Mail.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am familiar with male predators because I worked in Hollywood at a young age,\u201d Winter told the outlet<\/a>. \u201cI don\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe experiences I had in person and online as a child have affected me so deeply that I\u2019ve had to go to therapy for it,\u201d the actor, now 27, continued. \u201cThe movie and TV industry is a dark place.\u201d <\/p>\n

Winter, who left Los Angeles after \u201cModern Family\u201d ended in 2020<\/a>, recently told People<\/a> that the city \u201cholds some not-great memories\u201d for her. She said she was \u201cpushed into the industry\u201d<\/a> at 4 years old by her \u201cstage mom,\u201d Chrisoula \u201cCrystal\u201d Workman, who wanted her to be famous.<\/p>\n

Winter was removed from her home<\/a> in 2012 following abuse allegations against her mother, who was reportedly accused<\/a> in court documents of pushing, hitting and slapping Winter \u2014 and allegedly imposing such a strict diet<\/a> that Winter\u2019s co-stars would secretly give her food. Workman was also accused of dressing Winter in highly inappropriate outfits for her age.<\/p>\n

The Department of Children and Family Services later confirmed the emotional abuse allegations<\/a>, and guardianship over Winter was transferred to her adult sister, Shanelle Gray. Workman has denied the allegations<\/a>; Winter was emancipated from her mother<\/a> in 2015.<\/p>\n

\"Winter,Winter, seen here at the 2021 Annual HollyShorts Film Festival, has since left Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Michael Tran\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Winter has also opened up about the online harassment she endured during her teenage years, telling People in May<\/a> that she had to endure \u201cgrown people\u201d describing her in articles as looking like a \u201clike a fat slut.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I was 14,\u201d she told the outlet. \u201cIt totally damaged my self-esteem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winter has since found purpose in teaming up with the nonprofit SOSA (or Safe from Online Sex Abuse)<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can be scary at times pretending to be 12 and [talking] to older men, but it\u2019s validating to put away predators that have been harming children,\u201d she told the Daily Mail.<\/p>\n

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\u201cGrowing up in the entertainment industry, I\u2019ve been the girl we are trying to save,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s vital to me to help protect young women from the experiences I endured in my own life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Need help? Visit RAINN\u2019s National Sexual Assault Online Hotline<\/a> or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cModern Family\u201d alum Ariel Winter is opening up about her traumatic childhood stardom. The actor was only 11…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[3045,639,88,640,3044,92],"class_list":["post-2481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-abuse","tag-ariel-winter","tag-entertainment","tag-modern-family","tag-sexual-harassment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}