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Ariel Winter is opening up about her family struggles while she was growing up on screen
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She says it took a lot of therapy, but now she’s looking forward to being her best self and becoming a mom one day
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She’s looking forward to future projects, including a return to Sofia the First, a podcast and a cooking show
Modern Family actress Ariel Winter, 27, who endured years of online bullying as a child star, says she’s in a wonderful place in her life now.
That’s why she feels able to open up about the trauma she experienced as a child, including enduring a tumultuous relationship with her mother, Chrisoula Workman, whom she’s accused in the past of abuse. (Workman denied the allegations.)
“Honestly it’s just my entire childhood,” Winter says when asked about her biggest source of trauma, noting that she doesn’t want to publicly go into detail about the things she endured.
Diana King
Ariel Winter at home with one of her rescue pups for People Magazine. 2025
When Winter was 14, after a legal battle, her older sister Shanelle Gray eventually became her legal guardian. Three years later Winter was legally emancipated and declared an adult, and she has since refrained from talking to Workman — or even about her.
“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,” she says of her childhood.
Winter says therapy, as well as pouring her energy into her work with SOSA [Safe From Online Sex Abuse], has helped her discover tools to shut out any past criticisms and look ahead.
Diana King
Ariel Winter at home for People Magazine, 2025
A move away from Los Angeles with her boyfriend, actor Luke Benward was another part of that healing process. But she clarifies: “I didn’t leave the industry, 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 do get a show that shoots there I can always go back.”
Diana King
Ariel Winter cooking in her kitchen for People magazine, 2025
These days, the couple live a mostly domestic life and enjoy hanging with their dogs and cooking.
“I love it,” Winter says of whipping up recipes and sharing the videos on Instagram. She says Benward is a good helper. “I jokingly call him my ‘sexy little sous chef,'” she says with a laugh.
“I also I love playing video games,” she adds. “I don’t want to say I’m a hermit, but I’m really not out that much.”
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When she does go out, she says, she’s immediately recognized. “I’m always friendly to fans. I think it’s really sweet to be recognized,” she says. “The thing that was a major problem for me in L.A. was the paparazzi and not being able to go to the store without knowing that every little thing I did was being watched and reported on. I don’t have that now.”
As for future projects, she’s reprising her role as the voice of Sofia the First in next year’s reboot of the animated series, titled Sofia the First: Royal Magic. In addition, she’s launching a podcast and working on a cooking show, along with producing several other projects with Benward.
Diana King
Ariel Winter cuddles one of her six dogs at home
She’s also raising awareness about rescue dogs, something she feels passionately about. (She has six of them!) Her first dog Casper, was a purebred Samoyed, but when she learned how many dogs needed saving from shelters, she couldn’t stop from adopting four more.
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“There are a couple of things that have felt like my purpose to me, and rescuing dogs is one of them,” she says. She feels a kinship to the animals, who either are left to fend for themselves or have been abused, or outlived their usefulness and been discarded.
“They need somebody to advocate for them,” Winter says.
“They can’t do that on their own. They need somebody to see them, because a lot of times they just get overlooked.”
She adds, “They deserve a second chance. I don’t think a lot of people realize what that feels like and what that means. And I do. I really do.”
Read the original article on People
