A ‘Modern Family’ Star Is Expressing Disappointment With Her Character’s Arc Before The Series Finale

After 11 seasons, ABC’s Modern Family is coming to an end tomorrow with a two-part finale entitled, fittingly, “Finale.” As someone who hasn’t regularly tuned in since season five, when it won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series for a fifth straight year (!), I cannot speak to the quality of the show. So, I’ll leave it up to Sarah Hyland.

The actress, who plays Claire and Phil Dunphy’s daughter Haley, told Cosmopolitan that she was disappointed with how her character’s arc came to an end. She wanted to see Haley “own her badassery in the fashion world, becoming a badass stylist or brand mogul or anything like that.” Instead, she had twins, and became defined by her struggles with parenthood. “There are so many amazing mothers who are also hard workers and excel at their jobs and kill it every day in both aspects,” Hyland said. “That would have been a really cool thing to see, especially from someone like Haley.”

This isn’t the first time Hyland has expressed her irritation with Modern Family. When fans noticed that Haley was absence from over half the episodes in the final season, she tweeted, “Apparently I’ve been busy with the twins.” Hyland also didn’t know that Haley’s grandfather Frank (played by the great Fred Willard) died until the episode aired. “So I don’t read scripts of the episodes of Modern Family that I’m not in, so I just found out that my grandpa’s dead along with all of you,” she said on Instagram. “I still feel special.”

If that’s what happened to Haley these past six seasons, I can’t wait to learn what Manny is up to. Oh, he’s still the worst Never mind. The Modern Family series finale airs Wednesday, April 8, at 8 pm EST.

— Modern Family (@ModernFam) April 6, 2020