Ariel Winter is opening up about her decision to leave Los Angeles in search of a more normal life following the success of Modern Family. The actress, who played Alex Dunphy on the long-running sitcom, sat down with on-screen mom Julie Bowen and her Quitters podcast co-host Chad Sanders to discuss how having such a lack of privacy at such a young age eventually led her to leave LA.
“Part of the reason I always hated LA is because I have been followed by paparazzi for a very long portion of my life,” the 24-year-old shared. “And I really, really dislike having my space invaded.” She continued, “I don’t like pictures of me when I haven’t signed up for pictures of me. I don’t like feeling watched. I’ve always just wanted to live a very, very normal life, just have a normal existence.”
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Living that normal life with all the paparazzi on her tail in Los Angeles was something she “never really felt like I could do,” because “everywhere I went, someone’s taking my picture.” Winter didn’t share where she’s living now but did explain the thought process behind packing up her life and her home and taking the leap into rebuilding elsewhere.
“People have always been like, ‘You don’t like LA, why don’t you just move’… and then I just randomly looked and decided why not,” she recalled. “We sold our cars, got an Escalade to fit all the dogs for the drive, put my house on the market and sold my house.” Living in LA for Winter was all about having her every move watched and photographed, she continued. “Everything normal that I would do, it’s not going to stay normal. It’s really just about the feeling of not being comfortable to do normal things.”
When it comes to her new life elsewhere, Winter said she feels much freer to explore life without all the attention on her. “It feels like a different thing here,” she said of her new home. “I’m going to get to live some of the young adult [life] I haven’t been able to live.”
