Eric Stonestreet says 'Modern Family' co-star's relationship inspired him to find love
“Modern Family” changed Eric Stonestreet’s life for the better in many ways!
Stonestreet played Cameron Tucker in “Modern Family,” for which he won back-to-back Emmys, but it wasn’t until the middle of his decade-long tenure on the sitcom that the star would see another big change happen in his life.
While appearing on his former on-screen husband, Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s podcast, “Dinner on Me,” Stonestreet details a “vivid moment” with his co-star Ty Burrell at an Emmys afterparty that changed it all for him.
"I had this really vivid moment at a CAA Emmy party. Ty Burrell and [his wife Holly Burrell], Rich Sommer and his wife were over there sitting down. I'm bebopping around the room, talking to people and meeting people and doing what you do. And I have this very distinct memory of looking over and being like, 'I want to be those people.'"
Stonestreet continued, "I know you relate to this, which is I just didn't want somebody that wanted to be at the party more than me," Stonestreet told Ferguson, who understood the sentiment that, as a public figure, you need someone grounded. Ferguson added that he has always been "very grateful that I 'met [husband Justin Mikita] at the beginning of the ‘Modern Family’ journey.
"I just remember thinking, 'That's what I want to do," Stonestreet continued. "I've told Ty, I told him that when I called to tell him that we're getting married. I said, you don't know it, but you and Holly... are very prominent in me getting on the direction of what I wanted to do."
The Burrells met in the 1990s when they were both aspiring actors in Washington, D.C. They secretly got married in 2000 and adopted daughters Frances and Greta.
Meanwhile, Stonestreet married Lindsay Schweitzer, who he met at a charity event in their hometown of Kansas City, back in 2016. The couple got engaged in 2020 and wed in a surprise ceremony in 2025.
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