Sarah Hyland Discusses The End Of ‘Modern Family,’ Says She Didn’t Like Her Character’s Ending

Sarah Hyland is ready to speak out about the way things ended up for her character, Haley Dunphy, on Modern Family. In an interview with Cosmopolitan, the actress discussed her feelings about the end of the show, and said she still hasn’t totally processed the fact that it’s over.

In the interview, Hyland said that she would have preferred to see her character end up as someone who can “own her bada**ery in the fashion world — becoming a bada** stylist or brand mogul or anything like that.” Instead, the show’s writers decided to conclude her arc by having her give birth to twins.

Hyland, who was on Modern Family for more than a decade, also showed up less frequently in the show’s final season than she had previously. The actress continued by saying that she thought her character could have had a more explicitly empowering ending.

“There are so many amazing mothers who are also hard workers and excel at their jobs and kill it every day in both aspects. That would have been a really cool thing to see, especially from someone like Haley,” she said.

Although she’s now between jobs because of the end of Modern Family, Hyland isn’t concerned about where her next job will come from.

“The thing as an actor is it’s like, ‘Will I have a job tomorrow?’ With Modern Family ending, it’s like, ‘Oh, great. I’m never going to work again. I’m going to have to sell everything and live out of a shoebox,'” she said.

Hyland has apparently lived that kind of life before. She was raised in an apartment that was only about 300 square feet.

Given the show’s tremendous success, Hyland will likely never need to have another acting job if she doesn’t want one. According to Stylecaster, Hyland was making $125,000 an episode by the end of the show’s run, as were many of her younger co-stars. The show’s adult cast members were making upward of $500,000 an episode.

In Cosmopolitan, Hyland also discussed her engagement to Wells Adams, who she started dating after the two met online. She admitted that the story of how they met was cliched and made her want to “gag,” but she also said that the two had been discussing their dream wedding for some time now, in part because they were convinced that they were right for one another.

“We were talking about what kinds of weddings we wanted four days after we made things official,” she explained.