On Sunday, Father’s Day posts on social media were a dime a dozen—but fans were delighted when Sarah Hyland included a special shoutout to not just her own dad, but her TV dad, too: Ty Burrell, who played Phil Dunphy opposite Hyland’s Haley on the show Modern Family.
Per BuzzFeed, Hyland shared a joint Instagram post with her husband, Wells Adams, writing “Happy Father’s Day to all the dads in your life! #fathersday.” The photo featured Hyland’s and Adams’ dads, Edward Hyland and Robert Adams, respectively—but also Burrell, with whom Hyland’s character shared one of the most wholesome father-daughter relationships maybe ever on screen.
“Ok I just cried a little over Phil Dunphy being in this,” one user commented. “Phill [sic] is EVERYBODYS dad,” someone else wrote. “There’s no greater father figure than Phil Dunphy.”
Burrell and Hyland have remained close since filming on Modern Family wrapped in 2020. In fact, Burrell was slated to officiate Hyland and Adams’ wedding last August but had to step down because of a family emergency. Ultimately another Modern Family costar, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, wound up officiating.
“I don’t know if people know this, but Ty Burrell was meant to do it, and there was a family emergency,” Ferguson told Entertainment Tonight at the time. “So, I got a phone call 12 days before the wedding, and that’s why Ty wasn’t there. He had stuff going on.”
He continued “But I did call Ty like, ‘What are some of your bullet points that you were going to talk about? Because I need to fast track this.’ He hadn’t written anything up, but he had some ideas, and I was like ‘Oh, this is all really good. This is a jumping off place.’ I was honored to do it. Very happy to understudy Ty Burrell.”
We love the continuing connection between this cast!
