Ariel Winter is ‘familiar with male predators’ as she recalls past ‘trauma’

Ariel Winter, who rose to fame as a child-to-teen star on “Modern Family,” is unfortunately “familiar with predators.”

The 27-year-old actress, who is now appearing in YouTube’s true crime docuseries “SOSA Undercover,” began her career in Hollywood when she was 4.

(“SOSA Undercover” follows team members from the Safe from Online Sex Abuse nonprofit organization, which works directly with law enforcement on undercover operations to identify and apprehend perpetrators of sex abuse and trafficking.)

Cautious to not “say too much about” her past experiences, Winter told the Daily Mail in an interview published Wednesday that “by the time [she] was on a laptop and cell phone, [she] was getting inappropriate messages from older men.”

She said the uncomfortable interactions she had — both “in person and online” — “caused trauma.”

Winter admitted she was affected “so deeply” that she “had to go to therapy for it,” calling the entertainment industry “a dark place.”

The TV star, who went through puberty in the spotlight, also recalled being severely impacted by the constant scrutiny of her body.

“Having my figure written about was a major part of my teenage years,” she told the outlet. “It was just everywhere. It was every headline I read about myself. I mean, I was 14.”

Winter explained that she “was on an antidepressant in high school that caused [her] to gain 30 pounds,” but at that time, her “mental health was [her] top priority.”

Eventually, she had her prescription altered, and when she “happened to lose all that weight,” she received backlash for that, too, as she was accused of being “way too skinny.”

“It was hard to be torn down constantly,” she confessed, which prompted a “journey of self-healing.”

Winter, who left California with her boyfriend, Luke Benward, in 2020, insisted that she has “great people” around her now.

“I am definitely happy living outside of Los Angeles,” she shared, adding that the city holds “a lot of history [she] was happy to get away from.”

Winter also expressed a desire to welcome children one day, noting, “I want to have a family, so I needed to heal those old wounds.”