Modern Family’s Ty Burrell reacts to rumours that he died in podcast interview with Jesse Tyler Ferguson

Modern Familly’s Ty Burrell has addressed rumours that he died.

Speculation that the actor, who played Phil Dunphy in the cult favourite sitcom, had died began circulating among fans after he failed to attend a cast reunion in November 2023.

He has now recalled how it all started in a new interview with his Modern Family co-star Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who played his brother-in-law Mitchell Pritchett on the show.

Watch the video above.

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“We had that one big reunion,” Ferguson recalled before Burrell cut in saying, “that I couldn’t make it to.”

“Well I died,” Burrell added matter-of-factly. “Remember how I died? Do you remember when I died?”

Ferguson continuing to correct him sharing that the “internet had decided” that he died.

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The rumours began when a photo of the cast reunion was posted to social media. As Burrell couldn’t make it, the cast held a framed photo of Burrell to include him in the photo.

Fans instantly panicked thinking that it meant Burrell had passed away and the rumour took on a life of its own.

“After that whole thing, everybody in the cast was telling me that apparently I had passed,” Burrell recalled.

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Ferguson laughed as he recalled the scenario and admitted that he and his fellow cast members could understand how fans were confused.

“It was so funny,” he said.

“When we look back on that, we’re like, because we brought a photo of you to include you in all the family pictures and we were like, ‘well yeah it does sort of look like we were having a memorial for you.’.”

Modern Family cast: See their photos from 2009 and 2020

Ferguson added that including a photo of Burrell was meant to be a joke as it was his “least favourite press photo” but it spiralled into something so much more.

“You were basically punishing me for missing the reunion, which I deserved,” Burrell joked.

“It was the photo of me in the headphones doing the rock and roll heavy metal sign.”

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Despite the rumours, Burrell, of course, had not passed away. Instead, he wasn’t able to make the Modern Family reunion as he had to undergo surgery.

“My favourite part of this, though, was that we had all planned it and you said, ‘I think I’m going to be able to come. I think I’m going to be able to come’,” Ferguson said.

“And then you were like, ‘Oh, you know what, I forgot I have surgery’.”

While Burrell wasn’t able to make the cast reunion in November 2023, he was able to join his co-stars a few months later at the 2024 SAG Awards.

It was something that Ferguson saw to himself.

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“When the SAG Awards happened, [Burrell] was supposed to do something else,” Ferguson said in an interview with Jimmy Fallon at the time. 

“I was like, ‘Ty! You can’t miss it again! People will really think you’re dead!’ It’s like, ‘We need to present you to show that you’re not dead’. So he made it.”

At the awards ceremony, a thankfully-alive Burrell joined Ferguson, Ed O’Neil, Sofia Vergara, Julie Bowen and Eric Stonestreet.

“I laughed so hard being there with all the people that I loved and just screwing the pooch completely,” Burrell recalled of the evening.

“It just immediately became one of my favourite memories.”

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