Julie Bowen Reacts to Being a Modern Family Grandma

The kids are growing up on the hit ABC comedy

By Lauren Piester Nov 12, 2018 9:21 PMTags
Watch: Julie Bowen Talks Baby2Baby Helping SoCal Wildfire Victims

Get ready for Grandma Claire.

Modern Family revealed that Haley (Sarah Hyland) is pregnant, meaning Claire (Julie Bowen) and Phil (Ty Burrell) are about to become some really young, hip grandparents.

We haven't seen Haley tell her parents the news yet, but we'd like to request that Claire reacts the same way Bowen reacted when E! News asked her about the news at the Baby2Baby Gala in Los Angeles over the weekend.

"Grandmaaaa!" Bowen shouted. "Yeah, that's right. I'm gonna be a grandma."

She then clarified that while it's Claire who's actually the grandma, that's kind of like Julie herself being a grandma.

Based on what executive producer and co-creator Chris Lloyd told us after the baby news was revealed, it's likely we're not going to see Claire and Phil excitedly shouting about Haley's big surprise…at least not yet.

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Modern Family Cast Then and Now

"They react about nine different ways, you can imagine," Lloyd told E! News. "They're younger than people typically become grandparents, and they have a lot of misgivings about whether Haley is ready, but there are also huge echoes of their own experience getting pregnant at a time when they were not expecting it and probably felt overwhelmed by it."

Lloyd said that Haley has "a lot of anxiety" about telling her parents the news.

"I think she's aware that Dylan (Reid Ewing) is maybe not Claire's favorite, and she wants to find a way to frame this news in the best way possible," he teased. "So we do have a pretty funny episode where she makes several runs at breaking the news, and then we have a pretty big fallout from that. It looks like maybe the family has taken the news in stride, and they don't."

Lloyd also previewed that Claire will be getting closer to Dylan's mother, who happens to remind her a lot of her own eccentric and recently deceased mother, DeDe.

read
What That Modern Family Pregnancy Means for the Show's Future
ABC

In some different baby news, Bowen was on hand at the Baby2Baby gala to support the organization she's worked with for years, helping to get basic necessities to babies and children in need, especially after disasters like the fires currently burning in Southern California.

"They're the most vulnerable part of our population," she says. "They have no choice in this and we have to help out. Anybody who is fortunate, as I assume you are, has a baby shower and ends up with two cribs, or three car seats, or a double stroller, or like a fun stroller and then a serious stroller. You realize how many people need this, as just basic necessities. And Baby2Baby's been able to help hundreds of thousands of babies with basic necessities."

She says diapers are the main calling card.

"You hear of people reusing, like washing out diapers," she says. "It's just devastating."

Click play above to hear more from Julie and to see her grandma reaction, and you can find out more about the organization at baby2baby.org.

Modern Family airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on ABC.