Ariel Winter Opens Up About Being in a 'Season of Change' After Leaving L.A.: 'Trying to Heal and Grow'

The 'Modern Family' actress is enjoying life at a slower pace these days outside the hustle and bustle of L.A.

Ariel Winter is living her best life four years after Modern Family came to an end.

The 26-year-old actress, who played the middle Dunphy child Alex for 11 years, has moved out of Los Angeles. Now, she's enjoying life at a slightly slower pace these days.

"I don't think L.A. was ever really my vibe, but I just was nervous,” Winter told E! News of her decision to relocate with her boyfriend Luke Benward.

“And then this opportunity presented itself, and I was like, you know what? I'm in a season of change, and I'm really trying to heal and grow and evolve," she continued of the move to a quieter place. "It's opened up my world a lot."

Related: Sarah Hyland Shares Hopes for a Modern Family Reboot and Wanting to See Haley's 'Career Back' (Exclusive)

Since Modern Family's conclusion in 2020, Winter has stayed pretty low-key, and she told the outlet that the transition after the sitcom's decade-long run was "hard."

"When you go from working with somebody almost every single day for 12 years, and then it's kind of like, 'Poof.' Now everybody's everywhere."

Winter said she and her former castmates "try to keep in touch as much as we can," but regardless, they're bonded for life.

"You spend so much time with people, you really do become the family that you portray.”

She's particularly close with Nolan Gould, who played her younger brother Luke Dunphy on the show.

"He is my brother. He was my first best friend, which is a really beautiful thing," she shared. "We met when he was 10 and I was 11, and we've gone through so many stages of life together. And we have stuck through it all, thick and thin.”

Related: Julie Bowen Admits She Was 'Terrified' During Modern Family's First Season Due to Imposter Syndrome: 'I Don't Belong'

Like Winter, Gould has also been open about the challenges he faced in the aftermath of Modern Family. After spending more than a decade of their formative years on the show, Gould, 25, admitted to Jesse Tyler Ferguson on his Dinner's on Me podcast, "I find it hard to bond with people about the things that everyone went through, like, what was high school like?"

Gould told his former costar, though, that he "would not change my childhood" despite it looking pretty different to his peers.

"I'm really happy. I got to be part of such an incredible show. I know that a lot of other child actors don't have it as lucky."

"All these doors closed on kind of a traditional lifestyle, but opened up these really beautiful doors on a traditional, nonlinear lifestyle,” he continued.

"So I don't know. I'm happy with where I'm at now and I'm so glad I got to be a part of the show. I wouldn't change that."

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Modern Family can be streamed in full on Hulu.

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