Much like his Modern Family character Phil Dunphy, Ty Burrell has never been a ladies' man.
The Emmy winner sheds some insight into his love life in Playboy's February issue. "I was 15 when I lost my virginity. It was terrible. She was a really nice person, but I was so clumsy, really ineffectual. Luckily or unluckily, I don't have a ton of exes. Before my wife I was in only two relationships, one for five years and another for three and a half years," the 46-year-old actor says. "I'm a serial monogamist."
Though Phil has a bit of a crush on his stepmother-in-law Gloria Dunphy (Sofía Vergara), Burrell says his character is "kind of asexual." According to the TV star, "Sex for him is just sort of daydreamy."
Burrell can sort of relate. "It's either my personal lack of sexual charisma or the fact that Phil Dunphy is just sort of a sweet, asexual character, but I don't get that kind of attention. Women approach me just looking for a hug," he says. "Besides, it really matters whom you're with. My wife and I have been married 13 years, and we have two great kids now. I know I've stumbled into the right relationship."
Before he met his wife, a young Burrell saved money by living in his van. "I may have had one date during that whole period, which was about a year on and off," he recalls. "Basically, when my date figured out I was living in my van, I didn't hear from her again. The funniest thing was I was confused about why. I was like, 'What's the problem?' I didn't realize I was the creepy guy in a van. What could possibly be holding up this relationship? The van pretty much eliminated my dating life completely."
Still, the actor has fond memories of his days as a grad student at Penn State University in the late '90s.
"It was so uncomplicated...I had real purpose. If you have that, there isn't much need for anything else. I had focus and a routine. I would get up, go shower in the gym, read scripts and memorize them in the van," Burrell tells Playboy. "You know the way people talk about prison as a meditative, transforming place? The van was like a little prison cell—only without all the other terrible prison stuff going on."