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Ariel Winter felt complete and at peace when she went away from Hollywood
Essentially being raised on the set of Modern Family, Ariel Winter has taken the last five years to focus on what she now identifies as the most significant role of her life.
“It was only recently that I felt I had found my true purpose,” the actress and activist told E! News in October 2024 when she received the Legacy Youth Leadership Award at the 4th Annual Legacy Ball. “When I was a little girl, I first wanted to be a doctor, then a lawyer—and here I am now, an entertainer. So I can use that platform to help people, but anyway, this has always been my vibe.”
But what was never really her vibe was Los Angeles. She started her career in the city—booking her first commercial at the age of 4, making her film debut at 7, and scoring the role of Alex Dunphy at 11—but she still was Winter who decided to abandon the city.
Following the end of the 11 seasons of Modern Family in 2020, Winter relocated to Nashville where she can still manage her Hollywood career while being out of the Hollywood industry’s 24/7 spotlight. This has made her escape the pressures that are typical for a former child star such as the unending public scrutiny of her changing appearance as she was growing up.
Ariel Winter Says She Can “Do Anything…Anywhere” After Leaving L.A. and the Spotlight
Ariel Winter credits the post-pandemic move to remote work for making it possible for her to live her life outside of Los Angeles without sacrificing her acting career.
“Since the pandemic, nothing is done in person anymore,” she said. “I can do whatever I want, wherever I want. So, it has been wonderful to be able to do that, be able to do new things, be able to do everything, wherever I want to be.”
She does come to L.A., for example, when she attends the Modern Family cast reunions. Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Nolan Gould posted a picture from a lunch meeting on Jan. 5.
On the other hand, Winter has been very open about the negative aspects of being a child star on a successful sitcom. The family issues that led to her becoming legally emancipated at 17 were things that everyone saw, and the continuous paparazzi attention also made her feel like her privacy was being invaded.
“I don’t like photos of me when I haven’t agreed to being photographed,” she talked about on Julie Bowen’s Quitters podcast in 2022. “I don’t like feeling like I’m being watched. I’ve always just wanted to lead a very, very normal life.”
Winter shared that it was only after the end of Modern Family that she really understood she could carry her fame with her without having to settle down right in the middle of Hollywood.
Ariel Winter: Moving Away From L.A. to Nashville Allowed Me to “Heal and Grow”
Ariel Winter revealed that she was always impressed by people who decided to restart their lives by moving to a different place, but at first, she didn’t believe she was courageous enough to do that.
“I was just scared,” she confided to E! News. “And then this chance came up it, and I was like, ‘You know what?’ I am going through a period of change, and I really want to heal and grow and evolve, so this might be the case. Maybe this is the thing that will push me forward.”
Eventually, she sold her house and relocated with her boyfriend, Luke Benward, and their six dogs. A pair of 2024 Christmas snaps revealed the couple had a festive time with their “family of eight”.
Winter claims that the visiting has altered her significantly. “It has been a wonderful change for me, and I really have been able to dive into so many things which, I believe, I wouldn’t have attempted before,” she explained. “It has greatly expanded my world.”
Ariel Winter Makes a Bold New Move With Indie Flicks, Voice Work From Anywhere
According to Ariel Winter, her removal from L.A. has allowed her to channel her energy into projects and causes that matter while acting on her own terms.
The actress’ first step away from the spotlight shows in a lot of her decisions, including her 28th birthday celebration Jan. 28 being miles away from the city where her career took off – both, literally and figuratively. Winter has also mentioned that she needed some time to get away from the characters she was most known for and do something which she found more fulfilling.
“I was trying to find something new and different and I really wanted to play a character that was totally different from what I have been doing,” she told E! News last September of her indie flick Pools. In it, she portrays a college girl whose former BFF (Odessa A’zion) is dealing with a big personal issue. When the script landed at her door, Winter, decided that “If this is right, if it is done right, it can actually be really, really fun.”
Besides that, she has kept holding on to the voice-over work that doesn’t limit her location so that she can do it anywhere. In 2025, she will lend her voice to the animated series The Sisters Grimm and – to her nieces’ enormous thrill – she will bring back her character from Sofia the First in Disney Channel’s Sofia the First: Royal Magic, coming later this year.
Ariel Winter Says Nashville Move “Diversified” Her Life and Gave Her the Freedom to Explore New Paths
Ariel Winter says that moving to Nashville was a positive step that helped her have a more balanced and satisfying life, as it allowed her to take up other hobbies besides acting.
“Moving to Nashville basically diversified my life,” Winter said to the New York Post in October. ‘I went to high school and then I’ve now gotten into cooking and I do voice acting, and I do this and I do that, and I’m a dog mom, and I’m out here in the public and I’m also not. So I think that that’s kind of helped me.”
Winter revealed that she had support and guidance during her teenage years—mainly from her sister—but a large part of her development was from discovering things on her own. “I think I’ve always just done my thing,” she explained. “I had a little bit of guidance from 14 to 18…But, you know, I’ve figured out so many things on my own. And it’s been kind of a great thing for me to just feel free enough… to be like, ‘Okay, I’m just going to do this over here and I’m going to do that.”
That liberty has also been manifested in her activism, which earned her the 2024 Legacy Ball award, with her boyfriend Luke Benward and former Modern Family co-star Nolan Gould acknowledging her work. Additionally, she is a producer on the docuseries SOSA Undercover focusing on Safe From Online Sex Abuse (SOSA), an organization that works against online child sexual abuse and trafficking.
Ariel Winter Says SOSA Series Hit Home and Credits Luke Benward for Their Steady Support
Ariel Winter revealed that the docuseries Underage Undercover, which centers on the work of SOSA (Safe From Online Sex Abuse), was one of the main reasons that she wanted to get involved as it was a reflection of her own story.
The series really touched me deeply because I was that child so many times over being preyed upon both in person and online , she explained to E! News. I was just like, wow, to be able to help and be part of it is wonderful. I don’t want to say there is a solution, but I would love to help take some of these people off the streets.”
Moreover, Winter spoke about how her partner, Luke Benward—her longtime friend turned boyfriend for the past six years—has been her continuous support through the different changes.
“Having that foundation, you really can withstand quite a few storms,” she told E! in 2024 while referring to the “best friendship” that forms the basis of their relationship. She explained that she wasn’t implying that they had endured constant conflicts but instead real life is hardly ever flawless: “Life throws a lot of things at you, nothing is a fairy tale, a happily ever after.”
“It’s respect, it’s work,” she continued. “Loving someone is not enough.”
Ariel Winter Shows Leaving L.A. Wasn’t the End of Her Career Despite Industry Warnings
Ariel Winter reveals that she is more content than ever in her life with boyfriend Luke Benward and their “dog-kids,” even though a few people online criticized her for her domestic lifestyle.
Winter jokingly called Benward “grill daddy” and later on TikTok she defended him by saying, “He’s a great man, and if he wasn’t, the dogs would take his ass outside.”
The actress also spoke about the doubts she had to deal with when she made up her mind to leave Hollywood. The majority of the industry members told her that moving out of Los Angeles would spell the end of her career.
“It was like, ‘Oh, so you’re done,'” reminisced Winter, who has been four times with the Modern Family cast in the SAG Awards. “Like, ‘You’re not going to work again, that’s great, so you’re done in the entertainment industry.'”
Nevertheless, Winter stands her ground that those threats were nothing but talk. “It hasn’t changed any of my work opportunities,” she said, thus showing that she is capable of balancing a successful career with a lifestyle that suits her.
Ariel Winter Clarifies That She Didn’t Quit Hollywood, She Just Left L.A.
Ariel Winter has clarified that her relocating from Los Angeles was not about quitting acting but about opting for a healthier environment to live.
“It wasn’t the industry that I left, it was just the city of L.A., ” she told People in May. “It brings back a few not-so-great memories for me, and I am young and never lived anywhere else, so I thought, ‘Why not?'” If you are no longer in a network show that shoots there, you don’t really have to be there, and if I get a network show, I can easily go back.”
That closeness to the entertainment world extends to a possible Modern Family reboot, a project that Winter has mentioned she would be open to. She shared with E! News in September that if Dunphys were to get back together, she wishes Alex to be the one who has “grown her life in so many ways that I know she could have” since the show ended.
Theoretically, such development for Winter is not a matter of speculation—she is already experiencing it.
