Sarah Hyland has become a star actress playing Haley Dunphy on ABC’s hit show Modern Family. However, secretly the young actress has been battling a serious illness. For the first time, she opened up about the illness and her recent kidney transplant in an exclusive interview with Seventeen Magazine.
Sarah has been struggling with kidney dysplasia all of her life and underwent a kidney transplant a month ago on April 13. Receiving the kidney from her father, the actress said that her experience has taught her who she can really depend on in her life. ”You know that family is always going to be there for you – no matter what. My dad gave me a freakin’ kidney!” she told Seventeen. “But it’s also the families that you create outside of your family. And you really find out what kind of people you’re friends with.” She continued: ”It was just amazing, and it really opened my eyes to see who’s there for me and who’s not.”
The actress also gave major props to her boyfriend, actor Matt Prokop, for sticking by her side through her recovery process. ”He helps me with my medication and takes me to doctor appointments and all the stuff that I need to do to take care of myself,” Sarah said. “Any other 21-year-old guy would not be there, I guarantee it. I am one of the luckiest people in the world to have him be there for me.” She is obviously very grateful to have had this transplant, not only to continue her career, but to move forward with her own life as well. ”I have a second chance at life – not a lot of people get that.” Sarah said.
For the past few weeks now, I have actually been having my own Modern Family marathon from the very beginning of the series (I didn’t start watching until recently). I love Sarah as Haley, but I never knew that she was battling with any disease. That just goes to show that you never really know what’s going on with our beloved celebs behind the scenes. I’m glad that Sarah is recuperating nicely, and I wish her a speedy recovery!
Photo via Seventeen
