Ideally, Thanksgiving is a day for family, food and football (sometimes even if you’re working, like Tom Brady), but we all know things don’t always go as planned. Emergencies don’t take a break just because it’s a holiday, and that’s a truth that both Modern Family co-stars Julie Bowen and Jesse Tyler Ferguson learned Thursday. Each spent the day at the hospital with their children (both are OK, they assured fans!), and I love that they can lean on each other for support.
It might make a good synopsis for a Modern Family episode if it weren’t such a terrible thing to happen in real life, but on Thanksgiving Day, the actors who played siblings Claire Dunphy and Mitchell Pritchett on one of the best sitcoms of all time both had to take their kids to the ER. Julie Bowen, who shares 17-year-old Oliver and 15-year-old twins John and Gustav with her ex-husband Scott Phillips, posted a photo to Instagram showing one of them silhouetted in front of the lit-up emergency room entrance:
In the caption, the Happy Gilmore 2 actress assured fans that her son is fine, and she seemed to indicate this might not be their first visit to the establishment (as boy moms everywhere can surely attest to). Still, it wasn’t the ideal holiday, I’m sure, and as people sent their well-wishes in the comments, there was a familiar face, commiserating with Julie Bowen. Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s husband Justin Mikita commented:
Us too
Sadly it seems that the two dads, who share 4-year-old Beckett Mercer and 2-year-old Sullivan Louis, also had a not-so-happy holiday, as Jesse Tyler Ferguson shared his own photo on social media. The Tony Award winner looked solemnly at the camera as he lay in a hospital bed holding one of his sons:
He referenced his TV sister’s similar struggles, as he wrote:
I have received a lot of parenting wisdom from Julie Bowen, so seeing I wasn’t the only one with a kid in the ER on Thanksgiving was comforting. (He’s also fine.) Thank you to the kind folks at Lennox Health. NYC really DOES have the best healthcare.
I love that Jesse Tyler Ferguson has been able to lean on his sister for advice, as her boys are a good bit older than his, and it sounds like some of that inevitable parent guilt was alleviated by seeing that she, too, was unable to prevent whatever landed them in the ER. Their struggles didn’t go unnoticed by Sofia Vergara, who played their stepmother Gloria on the sitcom, as she commented on JTF’s photo:
Oh no!!!!❤️❤️❤️
Neither of the Modern Family stars disclosed the reasons for their hospital visit, but the important thing is that it sounds like everyone is OK. It’s also great to know that the Pritchett siblings can still lean on each other after all these years.
If you want to see Claire and Mitchell in happier moments, or where at least the hardships are all fictional, Modern Family is one of the funniest shows streaming on Hulu right now, and it’s also available to stream with a Peacock subscription. Our best wishes go out to Julie Bowen and Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s families for continued recovery after what was likely a scary day.
