After 11 seasons of playing Haley Dunphy on Modern Family, Sarah Hyland hated the way her character's story ended. Haley was the eldest of the Dunphy children and cared more about her social life than school. This outlook was vastly different from those of her brother and sister, which only added more humor to the Dunphy household and their wild family life with funny uncles and a sassy grandfather.
While season 11 of Modern Family focused on character growth, like Alex’s new job opportunity and Gloria’s attempt at becoming a realtor, Haley’s story centered on her relationship instead. Haley’s jobs on Modern Family were just as interesting as the others, but the writers made an interesting choice for her character that Hyland wasn’t fond of.
Why Sarah Hyland Hated Haley's Ending
In Modern Family season 10, episode 10, “Stuck in a Moment,” Haley had the ultimate Christmas gift for her parents: she was pregnant. The news came as a shock considering Haley just landed a dream job and was working things out with her on-and-off boyfriend, Dylan (Reid Ewing), after breaking up with Alex’s professor, Arvin (Chris Geere). No one saw a pregnancy coming since it seemed like Haley was just getting her life together. One of the few people who knew the news was Alex (Ariel Winter).
Haley’s focus on her boyfriend ruined the Modern Family character. In an interview with Cosmopolitan, Sarah Hyland expressed her disappointment in her character’s ending. Instead of the character settling and getting pregnant, Hyland wished viewers got to see Haley “own her badassery in the fashion world — becoming a badass stylist or brand mogul or anything like that.” That’s not to say Hyland isn’t ive of mothers; she just wished Haley could have it all. “There are so many amazing mothers who are also hard workers and excel at their jobs and kill it every day in both aspects," Hyland explained. "That would have been a really cool thing to see.”
Haley Could Have Done So Much More
While it's unknown what happened to the show's characters after its series finale, a Modern Family spinoff continuing Haley's story and showing her life as a mother and wife could have been interesting. It would have been especially inspiring to see her raise her kids and work on her marriage while also being a celebrity stylist, as Hyland envisioned. Haley was always interested in photography and fashion, and although she was kicked out of school, she attended community college in order to earn a degree and get her life on track.
Between working for famed designer Gavin Sinclair and the lifestyle website NERP, Haley created the perfect life for herself. She was outgoing and finally focused enough on her goals. There was no reason for Haley not to be able to do it all. Despite Modern Family being over, viewers continue to enjoy the show through streaming, and Hyland's regrets about her character's ending linger in that perpetuity with the lasting belief that Haley was worthy of doing so much more than falling into a sitcom cliché.