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Modern Family Dad Was Bullied as Kid, Had No One to Turn To

Ed O'Neill admits he was too scared to tell his parents what was really going on at school

By Marc Malkin, Meagan Medick Jun 23, 2011 10:57 PMTags
Ed O’NeilJason Merritt/Getty Images

Modern Family's favorite funny grandpa, Ed O'Neill, is getting serious.

The actor is revealing that struggled with bullying as a kid he, but chose to keep it a secret from his parents...

"I mean, when I was a kid I was bullied," O'Neill admitted during an interview airing tomorrow on HDNet's show Inside MMA.

"When I was bullied, there was a certain code of honor when you were a boy at school," he continued. "You didn't go get a teacher and complain about a guy that's bullying you because that was worse," he said.  "And I didn't tell me parents at home because I feel like my father would just say, ‘Well go fight the guy. I don't care how big he is.' So that was a problem. I didn't really know how to handle it myself."

As we previously reported, O'Neill's onscreen son, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, was also a victim of severe bullying, telling us he "lived everyday in fear."

"I left school in the eighth grade and I went to a different school," Ferguson said. "It was hard. It was a horrible, horrible experience."