Julie Bowen Of 'Modern Family' Opens Up About Her Teenage Eating Disorder

American actress Julie Bowen discussed her battles with an eating disorder as a teen and contrasted those experiences with those of her sons.

Bowen revealed that she was struggling with puberty at the time and didn't like the "feeling of changing," but found out she was really starving.

In addition, the "Modern Family" star admitted to having plastic surgery to "fix her stomach," saying that she had the procedure done 11 years after giving birth to twins.

Read on to learn more.

Bowen revealed during her appearance on "The Tamron Hall Show" that one of the issues she dealt with as a teen was eating disorders.

The "Boston Legal" actress noted that she stopped eating because she was always worried about making mistakes and losing control of her emotions when she was younger.

She admitted that she was frequently hungry and didn't have time for food while contrasting her teenage experiences with those of her sons and highlighting their similarities in the process.

"You know, it's funny because I have three sons, and they're all so different. But I see one of them is very similar to me, and I see him always trying to color inside the lines and get the A+," she said.

"And I think (as a teen) I interpreted being messy or making mistakes or having an a** or like fat coming out of the top of your jeans [as] a symbol that you couldn't contain yourself. That you were too much, and that to be good meant staying inside the lines—literally and figuratively. Keeping it tight," Bowen added.

"And that's my attitude: tight. And by the way, that is not fun. It's not a fun way to live," the actress further explained.

She then went on to note that she thinks her disorder was a "coping mechanism" as starving makes one lose feelings, making the body "not have time" to eat.

The 52-year-old actress also spoke about her encounter with body shamers shortly after giving birth to her twin sons on the program.

She said, "I was lucky enough to get a little bit of fame and recognition before everybody had a cell phone in their pocket and a camera all the time."

"I had my twins in 2009, and I was in Hawaii shooting 'Modern Family.' It was less than a year later, and I still had the baby gunk," she added.

"I was working and breastfeeding, and I jumped in the ocean with my husband at the time wearing a bikini—no one was around—and by the time we got up to the room, there had been paparazzi like in the rocks hidden away, and it was the nastiest. Like, 'What is wrong with her?' 'This is disgusting,'" Bowen noted.

Bowen revealed that she went under the needle to fix her stomach after concluding her role on "Modern Family" in 2020. She openly discussed the issue on "The View," drawing inspiration from the show's host, Sunny Hostin, who spoke about her own plastic surgery to de-stigmatize it.

"I finally got the stomach fixed," Bowen revealed while holding her belly. "Finally, after all these years. They ripped it open, the twins just ripped it," she said, referring to her 13-year-old twins Gustav and John.

"And I said as soon as Modern Family is done, I'll get it fixed. But it was 11 years! So 11 years later, we wrapped on Friday, and Monday they went in and they do you like a sneaker," she further narrated.

The actress and her ex-husband Scott Phillips have three sons together: Oliver, 15, and twins Gustav and John, both 13 years old. Bowen and Phillips got married in September 2004 but called it quits in 2018.

Bowen has largely kept her love life private ever since she and Phillips' divorce was officially finalized in 2018.

During a November 2022 episode of her Quitters podcast, the "Horrible Bosses" actress pointed out that she once developed romantic feelings for a woman.

"I'm straight. I've always been straight. I was in love with a woman for a while, but she didn't love me back," she noted. "She liked women, but she didn't like me in that way."

Bowen went on to add, "It never really took off, so I never really had to challenge the concept of my sexuality."