The following article includes mention of eating disorders.
Whether it’s starring opposite Adam Sandler in both ’90s golfing classic “Happy Gilmore” and Netflix original “Hubie Halloween,” inhabiting a possessed mom in Peacock’s horror comedy “Hysteria!,” or, most famously, playing the snarkiest member of the Dunphy clan, Claire, in sitcom phenomenon “Modern Family,” Julie Bowen has become synonymous with tickling the funny bone. She even has two consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series to prove it. But away from the glare of the studio cameras, the Brown University graduate’s own life hasn’t always been a laugh-a-minute affair.
Indeed, the Baltimore native has had to deal with everything from crippling self-esteem issues and cardiovascular conditions to mom guilt and manufactured tabloid rivalries. Here’s a look at 14 times that Bowen’s eventful story took a turn for the tragic.
Julie Bowen developed an eating disorder in her teens
In 2023, Julie Bowen appeared on “The Tamron Hall Show” where she revealed some upsetting news about her past: she had battled an eating disorder during her teenage years. And the “Ed” star now believes that this was a way of dealing with the difficult experience of puberty.
“We didn’t talk about anything, and it just sort of felt like … dirty,” Bowen recalled on the show (via People), referring to her family’s inability to address their problems. “And I realized, when you’re really starving, you don’t have any feelings … The body goes, ‘We don’t have time for that.’ So I think it was a coping mechanism.”
Bowen also explained how she felt pressured to contain her true self to be accepted. “To be good meant staying inside the lines — literally and figuratively. Keeping it tight,” the actor said, acknowledging that this has informed her attitude to life in general, too. “And by the way, that is not fun. It’s not a fun way to live.”
If you need help with an eating disorder, or know someone who does, help is available. Visit the National Eating Disorders Association website or contact NEDA’s Live Helpline at 1-800-931-2237. You can also receive 24/7 Crisis Support via text (send NEDA to 741-741).
She was once freaked out by a Ouija board
In 2024, Julie Bowen played a very different kind of on-screen mom, one who may or may not have been possessed by Beelzebub himself, in the Satanic panic satire “Hysteria!” Sadly for the actor, she also had to play the supernatural game that once gave her the heebie-jeebies in real life for the role.
When asked by Decider whether, like her character Linda Campbell, she’d ever used a Ouija board, Bowen revealed that she had indeed back in middle school. And the experience scarred her for life. “Unfortunately, somebody had a relative who had recently died, so we said were contacting them,” she recounted. “It freaked me out because even if it’s not real, which it isn’t, you can’t deny that when a bunch of people start believing the same thing, it gets crazy.”
Despite appearing in “Hysteria!” and slasher comedy “Totally Killer,” Bowen has an aversion to the horror genre, too. And a certain Freddy Krueger was to blame: “The scariest movie I ever saw was ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ with the sound off. It was playing at a party. There was no sound. And I slept with the lights on for three weeks.”
Julie Bowen had to be fitted with a pacemaker for her cardiovascular condition
Whether it’s becoming the face of the American Lung Association or advocating the benefits of vaccinations, Julie Bowen has often publicly spoken about matters relating to health. But you might not know that she’s been diagnosed with a condition herself, and one which meant she had to have a pacemaker fitted when only in her early 20s.
Yes, Bowen was diagnosed with bradycardia, a cardiovascular condition which means her resting heart rate measures less than the expected 60 beats per minute. Luckily, the “Boston Legal” star isn’t affected by the medical device she’s now worn for more than half her life, telling WebMD that she doesn’t feel or hear it.
“[It] serves as a monitor for me,” Bowen explained about the pacemaker, which kicks in whenever her heartbeat drops to potentially dangerous levels. The Baltimore native, whose sister Annie Luetkemeyer works in the medical profession as a specialist in infectious diseases, insists that she’s now in “excellent health” and is grateful to be living “during a time when the technology exists to treat my condition.”
Julie Bowen repeatedly cried while filming Happy Gilmore
In 2024, it was confirmed that Julie Bowen would once again be stepping into the shoes of PR director Virginia Venit in the long-awaited sequel to ’90s sports comedy classic “Happy Gilmore.” But as she revealed to “Today with Hoda and Jenna,” her experiences filming the first time around weren’t all that happy.
“I really was uncomfortable with my hair in it,” Bowen admitted to the hosts (via People). “Really uncomfortable with it. I remember sort of crying in my trailer, saying, ‘No one’s gonna see it, it’s okay.'”
Unfortunately for Bowen, who once dated Adam Sandler movie regular David Spade, plenty of people did see it. “Happy Gilmore” grossed more than $40 million at the box office and has remained a staple of cable TV ever since. “It’s the only movie my dad has watched over and over again,” the actor continued, which no doubt added insult to injury.
Julie Bowen felt like an outsider in the early Modern Family days
From her quick-witted displays of shade throwing to her perfectly timed pratfalls, Claire Dunphy was always one of the funniest characters on “Modern Family.” But despite previous appearances in comedies such as “Happy Gilmore,” “Multiplicity,” and “An American Werewolf in Paris,” the actor who played her initially didn’t believe she had the comic chops for the role.
Indeed, while guesting on Jennie Garth’s podcast “I Choose Me” (via People), Julie Bowen revealed that during the early days of the hit sitcom, she suffered from a severe case of imposter syndrome: “I spent the first year or year and a half in ‘Modern Family’ being terrified because everybody there was so funny and so good at what they did. I’m like, ‘I don’t belong here.'”
In fact, during a chat on “The Three Questions with Andy Richter” (via Entertainment Weekly), Bowen said she was shocked when her agents pushed her to auditions for such parts in the first place. “I was like, ‘I can’t tell a joke, I’m not funny — don’t give me those three-jokes-a-page kind of things,'” she said. Luckily, after being told to look to four-time Emmy-winning comedic actor Helen Hunt for inspiration, the Baltimore native eventually realized she had enough funny bones.
She spent much of her career undervaluing herself
It wasn’t just a lack of faith in her comic ability that used to keep Julie Bowen awake at night. The “Life of the Party” star also struggled with low self-esteem in general during her early years in Hollywood. And some of her nearest and dearest were undoubtedly to blame.
When asked by Baltimore Fishbowl about the worst career advice she’s ever been given, Bowen didn’t hesitate to answer: “Some people in my life kept saying I was ‘lucky’ to get jobs, and I shouldn’t push my luck by asking for better salaries or even better jobs.” As a result, the actor spent a significant amount of time undervaluing herself, a mentality she still has to fight against to this day.
Luckily, Bowen has received some more encouraging words of wisdom over the years, too, including from her mom, Suzanne, and father John. “My parents told me to get an education, whether I ‘used’ it or not, and I did,” she said, referring to the Italian Renaissance degree she earned at Brown University. “It is still the greatest thing I have ever done even if I rarely dig out Neoplatonism in cocktail conversation.”
Julie Bowen was body shamed after having twins
Julie Bowen found out the hard way just how mean the tabloids can be in 2010 when she was pictured enjoying some downtime from a “Modern Family” shoot in Hawaii. The star had dared to frolic in the ocean with husband Scott Phillips while sporting a bikini. But having given birth to twins nine months earlier, she was subsequently subjected to the red circles of shame.
“No one was around,” Bowen explained on “The Tamron Hall Show” (via People) in 2023. “By the time we got up to the room, there had been paparazzi like in the rocks hidden away, and it was the nastiest. Like, ‘What is wrong with her? This is disgusting.’ People circling my belly and my boobs and [saying], ‘This is nasty.'”
Bowen — who’s since revealed the truth about plastic surgery rumors that have haunted her over the years – was left horrified by the invasion of her privacy, but sadly also felt she’d done something “wrong” at the time. However, she now knows that the paparazzi photographers, and the gutter press in general, were to blame. “[They] had no idea my body just did something f***ing amazing,” she added.
She suffered from mom guilt
Julie Bowen first became a mother in 2007 with the birth of son Oliver. In an op-ed for Oprah.com, the “Joe Somebody” star admitted to believing that she got the whole parenting thing nailed down for the first two years. But that all changed when she and husband Scott Phillips discovered they were going to have twins.
“I was struck by the reality of two more people needing a slice of the pie,” Bowen wrote about the arrivals of twins John and Gustav. “None of my kids would get all of me — and my marriage, my friends, and I were probably going to get zero. If I wanted time for myself, I’d have to make adjustments.” The Brown University graduate initially accepted that frozen chicken dinosaurs may have to be on the menu at home sometimes.
But when leaving her family of five for the first time for an on-location shoot, the dreaded mom guilt kicked in. “I’d be gone for three weeks, and when I thought about the boys, I panicked,” Bowen recalled. “I’m a terrible mother. John and Gus will forget me.” Luckily, the actor eventually realized that pursuing a career wasn’t detrimental to her children’s wellbeing. “Sure, part of me feels bad when I sashay in at six o’clock after work and give the boys a quick kiss before they’re off to bed. But another part of me says, ‘You know what? You’re here.'”
Julie Bowen has found her fandom terrifying
You might not necessarily expect the mother figure of an ABC family sitcom to have a particularly rabid following. But in a 2014 interview with The Independent, Julie Bowen, aka “Modern Family” matriarch Claire Dunphy, revealed that she’s occasionally had to deal with hordes of fans who’ve got a little too close to comfort.
“It’s usually girls around 12 to 14, which is an age where girls travel in packs so they’re at their most dangerous and feral,” Bowen explained before referencing The Beatles — “That’s why The Beatles’ bus was almost flipped over” — and quickly clarifying that she wasn’t comparing herself to The Beatles. “I have experienced a crumb of that and have been terrified,” she added. “They start screeching and circling like wasps.”
Still, Bowen acknowledged that some of her “Modern Family” castmates have it far worse, particularly her on-screen daughters Sarah Hyland and Ariel Winter. “I was in awe of their composure,” she explained on Jennie Garth’s podcast “I Choose Me” (via People) in 2024, referring to the attention they receive. “They were living out loud and on social media and getting hate on social media. And I’m like, ‘Maybe you should just not be on Twitter or Instagram, and maybe you shouldn’t do those things.’ And they were like, ‘We’re fine. We’re fine.'”
Julie Bowen hated being pitted against Sofía Vergara
Born only two years apart, Julie Bowen and Sofía Vergara became firm friends during their 11-season run on “Modern Family.” But seemingly unaware that two women of a similar age don’t have to act like shoulder-padded rivals in an ’80s soap opera, the tabloid press constantly presented the pair as enemies.
It was a fabrication that continually perturbed Bowen, as she explained to Jennie Garth on her podcast “I Choose Me” (via People) in 2024. “I found that to be really disappointing on the part of the press, but I just never fed into that,” she told the host, who could no doubt relate having been caught up in a similar faux-feud with “Beverly Hills, 90210” star Shannen Doherty. “That’s a scarcity mindset, and there’s no such thing as, like, oh, if one woman’s doing well, that means others have to step back. It’s — I can’t support that.” In fact, Bowen wasn’t even the co-star Vergara couldn’t stand on “Modern Family.”
To prove that she and Vergara are still very much bosom buddies, Bowen then reeled off a list of things she loves about the “Griselda” star. “I love how different we are. And I love — she is funny and self-effacing and bawdy, and she loves life, and she loves dancing and eating cake and all these things,” she gushed. If that wasn’t enough, Bowen has also dubbed Vergara as her celebrity crush.
Her son Oliver developed life-threatening allergies
Julie Bowen suffered every parent’s worst nightmare in the late 2000s when her oldest son Oliver suffered a double whammy of allergic reactions that could have potentially been life-threatening. She has since made it her mission to inform other parents about such dangers.
Bowen’s traumatic experience occurred when Oliver, then just a toddler, got stung by a bee around the exact same time he had his first taste of peanut butter. “In a way, it was lucky, because it was clearly bad,” the actor told Boston.com. “His face was misshapen and he had trouble breathing. I couldn’t say, ‘Oh, it’s no big deal.’ This is very serious.” Luckily, thanks to the quick-thinking of his mom, the young Oliver made a full recovery.
As a spokesperson for the Get Schooled in Anaphylaxis campaign, Bowen wants the rest of America to get educated on the matter. “If you know the signs and have a plan of treatment, there’s no reason to be panicked or a helicopter parent. It’s up to adults to get educated,” she explained. “We should all know what this is. And he is his own best advocate. He doesn’t think he’s weird or special.”
Julie Bowen divorced her first husband Scott Phillips
In 2018, Julie Bowen went through the hardship of divorce when she split from her husband of 13 years, and the father of her three children, Scott Phillips. She also had to split the financial assets she’d largely accrued from her lengthy spell on hit sitcom “Modern Family.”
According to the court documents obtained by the press, Bowen — who has a large net worth on her own — and Phillips agreed to split their $25.3 million of shared assets in half. Phillips would also take full ownership of their marital home, said to be worth $5.4 million, while the former would keep her $3.1 million property in Los Angeles she obtained after they separated.
Luckily, the divorcees appear to have kept things amicable. Bowen has since talked about the respect she still has for her ex-husband, revealing to “The Motherly Podcast” that their ultimate co-parenting rule is “never smack talk each other, no matter what.” The pair will often comment on each other’s social media posts, such as the Happy Birthday Instagram reel Phillips made for son Oliver, which Bowen responded with, “The sweetest!!!! We made that person.”
Julie Bowen found saying goodbye to Modern Family hard
The team behind “Modern Family” no doubt had to spend a fortune on tissues during the final and 11th season of the ABC sitcom. For it seems as though every regular cast member spent the entirety of its shoot in floods of tears. Just ask Julie Bowen, aka mom of the house Claire Dunphy, who freely admits that she started the grieving process on day one.
When asked by Indulge about her emotional state while filming the show’s swan song, Bowen responded, “I have already done a fair amount of crying, but it comes out of the blue. I have definitely done the walking around and saying to people, ‘I love you’. Working together has been amazing.”
However, Bowen — who almost turned down her “Modern Family” role that launched her to worldwide fame – also claimed that she would be making a run for it once the cameras stopped rolling for the very last time: “I am not hanging out for the crying fest. I imagine that to be like a big amoeba of weeping. People hugging and crying, and I can’t do it. I would rather cry alone.”
She feels distant from her teenage sons
Having suffered from mom guilt for not spending every waking hour with her three children in their early years, Julie Bowen then experienced another pitfall of parenthood: the emotional distance that occurs when kids turn into moody and monosyllabic teens. “It’s like I got dumped by three guys I was madly in love with,” she told hosts Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager during a 2024 episode of “Today” (via People), referring to the lack of communication with her sons Oliver, John, and Gustav. “‘Hey, I’m right in the kitchen,’ and they never show up. It’s as desperate as I ever felt in high school when you had a crush on a boy.”
When it comes to the big issues, Bowen has had to resort to leaving various reading materials in unmissable places. “I have a lot of purposefully scattered about the house books that are informational about sex, drugs, what to avoid, how to not get people pregnant, not get diseases,” she revealed about her new motherly regime. This also includes a ban on cell phones in the car, presumably as it’s the only time she has them as a captive audience.
