Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Sarah Hyland, actors in the hit mockumentary Modern Family, have been friends for a very long time. Jesse was frequently the only cast member to reach out to Sarah during her worst moments. In their recent interview, Sarah Hyland and Jesse Tyler Ferguson were frank about the actress’s severe health issues while portraying the renowned Haley Dunphy on Modern Family.
Sarah had two kidney transplants and dialysis over the 11 years that they were on television, although she generally avoided the media’s attention as she gained fame. Sarah was born with renal dysplasia. The 32-year-old described one instance during her dialysis treatment when she found herself in ‘an incredible amount of pain’ on set and couldn’t even make it back to her trailer in a more open discussion about it on Jesse’s podcast Dinner’s On Me.
She shared, “I found a little corner, in a chair in Jay and Gloria’s kitchen, just kind of curled up into a ball and you came up to me and very lightly touched me on the shoulder. I feel like everybody at that time thought; ‘If I just breathe on her she’s going to break’. You were just like ‘Can I get you anything? Is there anything you need? I am here for you.’I just want to let you know how appreciative I am of that because I know in the moment I was probably very cold in that place.”
The actress claimed that because of her health issues, she was unable to work an eight-hour day and that, at the time, even expressing “the energy of gratitude” was too much for her to handle. “It was protective,” she continued, “That’s going to take away from trying to freeze myself in this moment so don’t feel any more pain than I already do.”
Jesse praised the young starlet for persevering for the sake of her profession and promptly assured Sarah that he did understand it stemmed from a place of self-preservation. He commented in response, “I hope you hear this praise and know it’s coming from a place of love but I just remember how strong you were during that time. I was like; ‘How is this little munchkin doing this?’ You got such superpowers.”
