Ariel Winter got candid about being cruelly fat-shamed as a teen in a new episode of Red Table Talk: The Estefans.
In the video, released Thursday, the former Modern Family star talked about experiencing the negative side of fame as a young adult when she had to read mean comments about her weight gain and changing body shape.
‘I got called a fat sl*t when I was 13. That was rough,’ recalled the 23-year-old actress.
Shamed: Ariel Winter, 23, revealed Thursday on Red Table Talk: The Estefans that she was relentlessly shamed online as a teen actress on Modern Family and called a ‘fat sl*t’ after she put on weight
Alex explained to Gloria Estefan and the Cuban singer’s niece Lili and daughter Emily that she was the target of online abuse about her body while she was starring as Alex Dunphy in ABC’s hugely popular comedy series.
‘Because I had gained weight and my body changed, I had to wear different outfits, and I wore a dress that had a cut-out here. And the headlines were dark,’ she recalled. ‘Fat sl*t was rough for me, and it continued.’
According to Ariel, some of Modern Family’s obsessive fans couldn’t separate her private life from her on-screen role as the nerdy overachiever Alex Dunphy.
‘It was the fans, some of them, we have lovely, lovely fans, but some of them were also hard on me in the way they loved Alex Dunphy. And because I wasn’t Alex Dunphy and didn’t look like Alex, I didn’t want to dress like Alex … I was just different in that way. I’m not my character,’ she said.
Still a child: Modern Family began airing in 2009, when Ariel was only 11 years old; pictured that year with (L–R) Sarah Hyland, Ty Burrell, Nolan Gould and Julie Bowen on set
New figure: ‘Because I had gained weight and my body changed, I had to wear different outfits, and I wore a dress that had a cut-out here. And the headlines were dark,’ she recalled; seen in January 2020 in LA
Confusion: According to Ariel, some of Modern Family’s fans couldn’t separate her from her on-screen role as Alex Dunphy. ‘I’m not my character,’ she said’ pictured with (L–R) Reid Ewing and Sarah Hyland on Modern Family
The four-time Screen Actors Guild Award winner — who appeared on the Red Table Talk episode titled Shamed And Bullied Online with former Fifth Harmony member Lauren Jauregui — says the trolling came from fans who could not accept that the real-life Ariel was growing up and was not the same person that they watched on their TV screens.
‘From them, they’re like, “How did you go from Alex Dunphy to being, like, a whore? You’re trying to be sexy, you’re 13, you’re a horrible role model. What are you showing people? You got so fat on TV, now you look so fat.”‘
Ariel theorized that her high school weight gain was a side-effect of antidepressants she had been prescribed by her doctor.
‘I gained 30 pounds,’ she admitted. ‘It was rough going to school, it was rough online, on my Instagram it was flooding comments, flooding comments. And so then I was like, “They hate this about me, I need to work on it.”‘
Medical issue: Ariel theorized that her high school weight gain was a side-effect of antidepressants she had been prescribed by her doctor. ‘I gained 30 pounds,’ she said, adding that it was ‘rough’ at school and online
On the bright side: In July, she told ET she was ‘doing quite well’ after a round of therapy. She admitted she was on medication in hopes of eliminating stigma around mental health issues
Things seem to have settled down in recent years for the actress following her online abuse.
In July, she told ET she was ‘doing quite well,’ though she admitted that she had begun a round of trauma therapy amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
‘The pandemic was hard. For some, harder than others,’ she said. ‘It’s devastating to see the effect it’s had on a lot of people, especially mental health-wise. For me, I’m very fortunate. I’ve been in therapy twice a week for eight years. It’s the best part of my week.’
The voice actress admitted she was currently on medication, and said she hoped her openness would help to ‘fully normalize mental health and the use of mental health medications.’