Sarah Hyland "felt suicidal" after her first kidney transplant failed.
Sarah Hyland has kidney dysplasia
The 'Modern Family' actress has kidney dysplasia, which effects the structure of the organ, and she recalled how low she felt having to undergo dialysis three times a week after her body rejected the first donated organ she'd received.
She said: “What do I do?’ That’s where I felt suicidal. I would avoid going into [organ] rejection and being on dialysis at all costs.
"Just energetically I was like, ‘This is just hard for me to do anymore. And it would just be easier for everyone else too.' "
But Sarah - who has since undergone a second, successful, transplant - did her best to "put on a show" because she didn't want to be seen as "weak and pathetic".
She added: “When you have grown up your entire life having health issues and always being pain, you have to learn how to have thick skin, put on a show … otherwise you’re just going to be looked at as a really weak and pathetic and sad person.
“I don’t like to victimise myself. I don’t like other people to victimize me. I had almost 27 years of putting on a show, whether it was on Broadway or in my family living room.”
The 31-year-old actress admitted she struggles to remember some days at work because her health issues left her so exhausted.
Speaking to her co-star Julie Bowen on the 'Quitters' podcast, she said: “I’m well. Everything’s stable. I haven’t left the house in a very long time right now, but everything is stable as of now.
“There are some episodes of ‘Modern Family’ where I do not remember filming because I was asleep. Dead ass asleep. The episode where Haley asked [Luke for] money and he’s like, ‘Don’t worry, I’ve got it on ice.’ It’s in the freezer or something. The entire episode I was asleep.”
Tagged in Julie Bowen Sarah Hyland