Ariel Winter Reveals She Had a “Rotten” Experience as a Child Actor: “It Depends on Your Parent”

Modern Family actress Ariel Winter got deep on a recent episode of her show Stars on Mars, reflecting on her challenging career as a child actor.

Speaking to her fellow celebronauts Ronda Rousey and Tinashe, Winter revealed that it wasn’t her decision to go into the profession when she began working as a toddler.

“I was four,” she said, per Daily Mail. “You don’t really decide anything at four.”

Rousey then asked if having a “rotten” experience is “inevitable” for child actors.

“No, no. Well, it depends on the parent. It depends on your parent,” Winter responded.

Winter is best known for playing Alex Dunphy on Modern Family from 2009 to 2020, but she landed her first acting role in 2005 on the short-lived sitcom Listen Up.

Tinashe praised the actress in a confessional later on in the episode, saying, “I’m really impressed with Ariel. You really have to be a strong personality and a strong woman and have a really strong sense of self to be operating in the entertainment industry. I relate to that.”

Winter has openly spoken about the “rough” childhood she endured under her mother’s care. The actress claimed to The Hollywood Reporter that Workman dressed her in “low-cut things” and “the smallest miniskirts” at the age of 7.

“People thought I was 24 when I was 12,” Winter said. “If there was going to be a nude scene when I was that age, my mother would have a thousand percent said yes.”

The actress legally emancipated from her mother at the age of 14 following allegations of child abuse. In 2017 interview with LaPalme Magazine, Winter said she spent most of her time with her mother growing up, though they didn’t “have a fantastic relationship,” per Insider.

“There wasn’t a lot of connection with a lot of people [during my childhood] because I wasn’t allowed to have them,” she said. “I spent the first 14 years of my life in isolation and it wasn’t great.”

After her emancipation, she moved in with her older sister Shanelle Gray, who became a legal guardian for the actress until she became 18. Winter told LaPalme this transition allowed her to finally have the childhood she missed out on.

Since Modern Family ended in 2020, Winter has continued acting, with credits in video games and television. But now, she is currently competing on Fox’s new reality series, Stars on Mars, where celebrities compete in a Mars simulation to become “the brightest star in the galaxy.”

Stars on Mars airs Mondays at 8/7c on Fox.