It seemed as though Sarah Hyland had everything she ever wanted in her life.
She became a household name after working on a hit TV show, and her career was on the rise.
What fans of "Modern Family" didn't see was all the horrific suffering the young actress had to
endure behind the scenes, while still having to put a smile on her face for the cameras.
From battling a health condition that almost cost her her life, along with a relationship
that almost broke her. She's gone through a surprising amount of hardship, and through it all,
she's determined not to let her struggles define her even though they almost broke her.
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By her count, Sarah Hyland, 28, has had about 16 surgeries, including a second kidney transplant,
laparoscopic surgery for endometriosis, and surgery to correct an abdominal hernia.
Her first kidney transplant from 2012 was already public knowledge.
Her dad gave her one of his when she was just 21 years old. However, when it came to the
details of her health struggles, the actress chose not to disclose that much information.
After a few years of occasionally referencing medical issues without going into specifics,
she decided to speak out and be more open about everything she's had to go through.
Hyland's body has put her through the wringer,
forcing her to confront her own lack of control and adjust her goals,
expectations, relationships, and self-image to make space for her medical needs.
Sarah was born with kidney dysplasia,
which essentially means her kidneys didn't develop normally when she was in the womb.
Kidney dysplasia causes the kidneys—those critical bean-shaped organs—to grow cysts. Those cysts can
disrupt the kidneys from doing their job of filtering waste products out of your blood.
Some people with only one dysplastic kidney go on to have few, if any, health problems related to
the condition. However, Sarah's kidney dysplasia was so severe that she went into kidney failure.
Eventually, she needed a transplant, and her father donated one of his.
Sadly, in 2016, the actress's body began to reject the kidney her father donated to save her life.
"When you have an organ transplant, it's basically a foreign thing in your body.
Your immune system will want to attack it and be like,
'What is this? This is not supposed to be here.'" Sarah explained.
She was overcome with fatigue, and experienced frequent fevers and infections.
She was close to being bedridden and could barely muster up the strength to go to work.
After a visit to the doctor, it was revealed that her body was rejecting her new kidney.
Her medical team compared the transplanted kidney to a home that had caught on fire.
"We did all of these tests and all of these treatments to try and save the kidney.
Christmas break, New Year's, Thanksgiving, my birthday, all of that spent in the hospital," The
actress confessed, having had to go back and forth between home and the hospital for months on end.
The following year, Hyland had to go on dialysis, which is when a machine filters blood for you
because your kidneys can't. The Dialysis was saving her life, but it also meant having to;
be hooked up to a machine three times a week for four hours per session.
Her weight dropped, prompting invasive public speculation.
The media was in a frenzy, assuming that she was battling an eating
disorder or substance abuse due to the pressure of her newfound fame.
Her face also swelled up due to the medication she had to take and caused her blood pressure
to spike enough to damage her vision, which already wasn't great to begin with.
The young actress was experiencing one of the darkest moments of her life,
living in constant pain and still showing up to work on 'Modern Family' because she
didn't want to let anyone down. Being on set with her fellow cast members that had now
become more like a second family, made Sarah feel like she wasn't someone who was sick.
"I was very depressed. When a family member gives you a second chance at life,
and it fails, it almost feels like it's your fault. It's not. But it does."
Unfortunately, the dialysis wasn't enough.
The transplanted kidney also had to come out, and she would need to get another kidney.
A few months later, Hyland found out her younger brother, Ian, was a match
for transplant number two. He was ready and willing to donate an organ to his big sister.
Sarah felt completely helpless, and for a while, she even contemplated taking her own life.
She confessed that she was terrified that her body was going to reject her
brother's donated kidney just like it had rejected her father's. She
was afraid of letting everyone down and feeling like a failure.
She feared that she would be adding another painful chapter to her book of lifelong health
struggles and anxious about feeling like she would be a burden to her loved ones,
even as they insisted that she was not.
"I had gone through [my whole life] of always being a burden,
of always having to be looked after, having to be cared for," she says,
explaining her thought process during this terribly dark time.
There were a few things that helped her cope throughout her experiences.
Like her dogs, they were able to sense when she's sick
and needs some extra love. Working on set was also a great source of strength for her.
"My work is my therapy. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for my work,"
If there's one good thing that came out of this entire traumatic ordeal, it's that Sarah was
able to meet the love of her life. Wells Adams , a radio DJ who entered the public
eye via a stint on The Bachelorette, and Sarah began speaking while she was still on dialysis.
As they flirted and got to know one another, she kept her health issues to herself,
assuming nothing serious was going to happen. He was thousands of miles away in Nashville.
"We met each other for the first time three days before my transplant.
He was texting me in the morning before I went into surgery,
and we were FaceTiming the entire time I was in the hospital." The actress confessed.
Adams was there for her during the recovery process post-transplant.
He saw Sarah at her worst, connected to all sorts of wires and machines, in pain from her surgery
and he remained by her side through it all. He continued to find her beautiful while she felt
she was at her lowest, and she knew that Wells was different from anyone else she had dated before.
Sadly for Sarah, she had not always been lucky in love.
Hyland rarely talks about her abusive ex-boyfriend
Matt Prokop , but she recently opened up about how domestic abuse still affects her today.
"A lot of people like to think that once you're out of an abusive situation,
it ends there, but it doesn't. The emotional trauma and scars on the soul
stay there, and they impact you for the rest of your life if you don't get help.
Sarah filed a permanent restraining order against Matt in 2014 after a painful 5-year relationship.
According to court documents, he choked her while insulting her.
He also threatened to burn down her house and kidnap her dog.
"His grip was so tight that I could not breathe or speak. I was scared and in fear for my life."
And even after the two broke up, he "relentlessly bombarded [her] with vile,
threatening and emotionally disturbing texts and voice mails including his own suicide threats."
It took an incredible amount of strength for the actress to walk away from a man she had once
loved in order to save her own life. She knew that if she had stayed with Matt any longer,
he would have taken her down a dark road that she may not have been able to come back from.
Thankfully, Wells was nothing like any of the previous partners Sarah had been with. He was the
light at the end of a dark tunnel, and she felt like he was able to bring her out of a terribly
dark time. In 2019, Sarah Hyland and Wells Adams got engaged in Fiji, with Wells capturing the
moment with the help of a drone. Both Hyland and Adams announced their engagement on their
Instagram, with Hyland posting five photos of the moment they got engaged, writing, "That can't eat,
can't sleep, reach for the stars, over the fence, world series kind of stuff @wellsadams."
To put it simply, Hyland is feeling pretty good, all things considered. So far, her second
transplant has been a success. It doesn't mean there aren't a few bumps in the road every now
and then. But Hyland is keeping on, and trying to keep everything in perspective. One day at a time.
"My name is Sarah. I have two of the most amazing dogs in the entire world.
I have the best boyfriend ever, who has the third-most amazing dog in the entire world.
I have the greatest family one could ask for."