Modern Family Star Reveals She’s Been Living With A Pacemaker Since She Was 29

By Corey Townsend

Julie Bowen is opening up about a surprising health development that few fans knew about.

The actor, best known for playing Claire Dunphy in the US sitcom Modern Family, recently appeared on an episode of the podcast Inside Of You with Michael Rosenbaum.

During the interview, it came out that the host was on his way to a procedure after their conversation – prompting him to ask Julie if she’d had surgery herself.

“I do have a pacemaker – I forget about it all the time,” she admitted.

Julie went on to explain that she was diagnosed with sick sinus syndrome – a condition that, according to the Cleveland Clinic, “can give you a heartbeat that’s too slow, too fast or a combination of both”.

Michael Rosenbaum noted that he has a “low resting heart rate,” to which Julie replied that she used to as well – but now her heart rate is set so it doesn’t fall below 45 beats per minute.

“When did they know this? Was this at birth?” he asked.

Julie then recalled that she “was a runner all throughout high school,” and had “always had a low heart rate”.

But it wasn’t until later that something felt out of rhythm. While they were on vacation together, Julie’s sister – then a medical student – discovered an irregularity and told her to see a cardiologist.

After filming a pilot, she took her sister’s advice. What followed was an immediate procedure to receive her pacemaker.

The actor admitted that the initial shock hit hard. Just 29 at the time, she feared it meant her life was over.

“Whenever I was relaxed, really relaxed, it would be like watching TV or movie or something, it was like I’d been holding my breath for a while, that feeling of lightheadedness, and they said, ‘You’re going to be driving a car and you’re going to kill somebody’.” she recalled.

Grasping her new reality, Julie said she responded: “Give me the goddamn pacemaker.”

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