Sofia Vergara took to Instagram this week to celebrate her former Modern Family co-star and onscreen husband Ed O’Neill’s birthday.
The 53-year-old actress posted a throwback photo of the two, in which she wore a sparkly emerald green gown and threw her arms around O’Neill, who turned 80 on Sunday.
Fans expressed shock at the veteran actor’s age as they took to social media to praise the former Married…with Children star.
Vergara captioned her post, ‘Feliz cumpleaños to my favorite husband!❤️ I miss u Ed O’Neill!!!!’
The note seemed to be a subtle slight at ex-husband Joe Manganiello, from whom she split in 2024 after nine years of marriage.
She was also previously married to Joe Gonzalez, with whom she shares son Manolo, 34, from 1991-1993.
One O’Neill fan wrote on a Reddit thread, ‘HE IS NOT EIGHTY – omg he is.’
Another chimed in, ‘I’m 61 and thought he was just a few years older than me!’
Someone added, ‘He’s one of those people you expect to stay in his mid sixties forever.’
A fan shared an anecdote, writing, ‘I saw him at a restaurant a couple months back and he definitely didn’t look like he was about to be 80. He hasn’t aged at all from his Modern Family days.’
The beloved sitcom aired on ABC for 11 seasons between 2009 and 2020.
Vergara starred as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett, the larger-than-life younger wife to O’Neill’s Jay Pritchett.
‘I can’t believe he is 80!’ one commenter wrote online.
A fan also said that the veteran actor is ‘looking good’ for an ‘old man.’
Another person reasoned, ‘You wonder how Ed O’Neill could be 80, but he was playing a sitcom dad in the 80s, so it checks out.’
In January Vergara shared photos from a mini reunion with some of her former Modern Family co-stars.
On Instagram she revealed she spent time with Julie Bowen and Jesse Tyler Ferguson.
Bowen played the role of Claire Dunphy in the series while Ferguson portrayed Mitchell Pritchett on the comedy series.
Last October Vergara offered an update on the cast five years after the series finale.
‘We are still like a family,’ the Griselda actress told E! News.
‘Everything we do, we are connected in a gigantic chat with all the kids and all the actors. And we’re always watching each other, supporting each other.’
O’Neill has kept busy since Modern Family ended.
In 2024 he played disgraced NBA owner Donald Sterling on the mini series Clipped.
He also appeared on Ryan Murphy’s legal thriller All’s Fair, which starred Kim Kardashian, Glenn Close, Sarah Paulson and Teyana Taylor.
O’Neill is best known for his role as Al Bundy on Married…With Children. He starred on the show for 11 seasons alongside Katey Sagal as Peggy Bundy, Christina Applegate as Kelly Bundy and David Faustino as Bud Bundy.
The series originally aired from 1987 to 1997 for 11 seasons and 259 episodes and helped launch the career of Applegate who has gone on to mainstream success in movies like Anchorman and Bad Moms as well as the critically-acclaimed drama-comedy Dead to Me.
Applegate, who played his daughter, previously gushed about how he essentially ‘raised’ her during her younger years on the show.
‘He raised me, so if you don’t like anything about me, it’s his fault. If you do like anything about me, also his fault,’ she joked back in 2024, before calling him, ‘an incredible human being.’
As for his personal life, O’Neill has been married to actress Catherine Rusoff, 72, since 1986. They have two daughters together, Sophia and Claire.
Last year O’Neill’s daughter Claire clarified her parentage after fan theories about whether she is related to her famous father kicked off online.
The actor joined Claire in a hilarious TikTok snippet in which they lip synced the expletive-laden intro to Tupac’s 1996 song Hit Em Up.
Claire, who boasts over 183,000 followers on the app, immediately became a trending topic after some fans began to question if she was biracial.
His daughter set the record straight about her racial identity in a comment which read: ‘Okay, let me clear things up for everyone: I’m 18 not 28. I am a surrogate baby (I’m not biologically related to my mom).’
‘I am 25 percent Black because the egg donor is 50 percent. My dad’s only been married once.’
Ed’s family is rarely seen by the public and Claire currently has a low-key social media presence on Instagram and TikTok.
While she doesn’t often share updates about her father, the teen has shown that she is more than happy to support him on special occasions.
Last summer, the pair stepped out together for red carpet premiere of the actor’s FX series Clipped.
