Sarah Hyland spoke with her Modern Family co-star Julie Bowen, the presenter of the podcast Quitters, about her kidney ailment and mental health challenges for the current episode of the audible series.
Hyland expressed her present feelings as follows:
“I’m OK. Everything is in order. I haven’t left the home in a long time, but everything is OK right now.”
Sarah Hyland has had chronic renal illness since infancy.
Hyland, born with renal dysplasia, a disease in which the kidneys do not ultimately develop in the womb and begin to fail as the child ages, has had over 15 procedures for her health issue, including two kidney transplants. Hyland’s father gave his kidney to her in 2012. Her body, however, rejected the donated kidney, and she was forced to undergo dialysis three times a week. Her second transplant, a kidney from her younger brother, took place in 2017, and she has been doing well ever since.
Sarah Hyland said that she slept a lot while shooting Modern Family. The actress commented about a 2011 episode titled Hit and Run:
“I don’t recall recording any episodes of Modern Family because I was sleeping. Asleep as a corpse The episode in which Haley asks [Luke] for money and he says, ‘Don’t worry, I’ve got it on ice.’ It’s probably in the freezer. I was dozing off throughout the whole of the program.”
She went on, saying:
“A specific degree of illness is required in order to obtain a transplant. I was getting to the point where I felt nauseous (in 2011). I couldn’t stay up for more than eight hours at a time. I was so fatigued.”
Bowen, who saw Hyland as a “little child to begin with and she had renal troubles,” also remembered how Hyland would never say no to working despite being in great agony “until she was in the hospital.” Sarah Hyland said she got suicidal due to her dread of another organ rejection before her second kidney transplant since she felt like a burden to her loved ones.
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“‘What if anything like this occurs again?’ Furthermore, [my donor brother] is very young. ‘What should I do?’ That was the point at which I felt suicidal. At all costs, I would avoid [organ] rejection and returning to dialysis.”
Hyland also said that she had been in agony for most of her life, telling Bowen:
“Twenty-seven years of virtually constant suffering. Being in and out of the hospital regularly. I don’t believe I’ve gone more than a year or two without being admitted to the hospital.”
She continued, saying:
“When you’ve spent your whole life growing up with health concerns and constantly being in pain, you have to learn how to develop thick skin, put on a show… or you’re going to be looked at as a very weak, miserable, and unhappy person.”
Sarah Hyland, who disclosed her mental health difficulties in 2019, stated:
“I don’t enjoy making myself out to be a victim. I don’t enjoy it when other people make fun of me. I have over 27 years of experience putting on a performance, whether on Broadway or in my family’s living room.”
Hyland highlighted how media pressure forced her to talk openly about her health problems. She had to deal with false narratives about her 75-pound weight loss. Hyland was called ‘huge’ When her face swelled from life-saving medications, she had to fight pregnancy rumors. The actress is engaged to TV star Wells Adams, but their wedding has been postponed twice due to COVID-19.
