Ariel Winter is living her best life four years after Modern Family came to an end.

The 26-year-old actress, who played the middle Dunphy child Alex for 11 years, has moved out of Los Angeles. Now, she’s enjoying life at a slightly slower pace these days. “I don’t think L.A. was ever really my vibe, but I just was nervous,” Winter told E! News of her decision to relocate with her boyfriend Luke Benward.

“And then this opportunity presented itself, and I was like, you know what? I’m in a season of change, and I’m really trying to heal and grow and evolve,” she continued of the move to a quieter place. “It’s opened up my world a lot.”

Since Modern Family’s conclusion in 2020, Winter has stayed pretty low-key, and she told the outlet that the transition after the sitcom’s decade-long run was “hard.” “When you go from working with somebody almost every single day for 12 years, and then it’s kind of like, ‘Poof.’ Now everybody’s everywhere.”

Winter said she and her former castmates “try to keep in touch as much as we can,” but regardless, they’re bonded for life. “You spend so much time with people, you really do become the family that you portray.” She’s particularly close with Nolan Gould, who played her younger brother Luke Dunphy on the show. “He is my brother. He was my first best friend, which is a really beautiful thing,” she shared. “We met when he was 10 and I was 11, and we’ve gone through so many stages of life together. And we have stuck through it all, thick and thin.”

Like Winter, Gould has also been open about the challenges he faced in the aftermath of Modern Family. After spending more than a decade of their formative years on the show, Gould, 25, admitted to Jesse Tyler Ferguson on his Dinner’s on Me podcast, “I find it hard to bond with people about the things that everyone went through, like, what was high school like?”

Gould told his former costar, though, that he “would not change my childhood” despite it looking pretty different to his peers. “I’m really happy. I got to be part of such an incredible show. I know that a lot of other child actors don’t have it as lucky.” “All these doors closed on kind of a traditional lifestyle, but opened up these really beautiful doors on a traditional, nonlinear lifestyle,” he continued. “So I don’t know. I’m happy with where I’m at now and I’m so glad I got to be a part of the show. I wouldn’t change that.”

Ariel Winter has said goodbye to Los Angeles for her sanity.

The actress appeared on Modern Family mom Julie Bowen’s podcast Quitters to discuss how she recently sold her house, packed a U-Haul and moved out of Hollywood with her boyfriend, Luke Benward, and dogs. The 24-year-old’s complicated relationship with fame is behind the move. She said having spent most of her life in the spotlight has caused her to grow tired of being tracked by paparazzi and having the photos used to fuel negative gossip stories about her.

“Part of the reason I always hated L.A. was because I have been followed by paparazzi for a very long portion of my life,” said Winter, who landed the role of Alex Dunphy at age 11. “I really, really dislike having my space invaded. I don’t like pictures of me [that] I haven’t signed up for. I don’t like feeling watched. I’ve always just wanted to live a very normal life, have a normal existence and I never really felt like I could do that. Everywhere I went, someone was taking my picture. I’m just not that person. Fame and all that is not something I’m interested in. I just want to live as normal a life as I can.”

Winter traced the start of the negative paparazzi and tabloid attention to 2012, when her then-momager, Chrisoula Workman, initially lost custody of her over allegations she had been abusive. The personal saga played out for years with Winter’s sister, Shanelle Gray, becoming her guardian before she became emancipated.

She called it “really traumatic” that 30 paparazzi followed her on a daily basis starting at age 14, shouting things and hoping to provoke a response for their photos. That trauma continued as she grew into a woman in the spotlight, having photos of her body scrutinized and shamed. She said paparazzi have continued to follow her today hoping to catch her “f*** up.” She said everything is given a “negative” twist and is spun into “lies.” Continue reading “Why Ariel Winter Just Packed Up and Left Hollywood”