Julie Bowen Admits She Was 'Terrified' During Modern Family's First Season Due to Imposter Syndrome: 'I Don't Belong'

Julie Bowen may have won two Emmys for her portrayal of family matriarch Claire Dunphy on Modern Family, but behind the scenes, Bowen was dealing with a serious case of imposter syndrome.

While candidly recalling her time on the show that aired on ABC for 11 seasons from 2009 to 2020, Bowen, 54, opened up about the "enormous amount of pressure" she was dealing with in her personal life.

"I had babies, and I was breastfeeding, and I was going to work at 5 AM. I had three kids in diapers, and, you know, you're going to work every day going, 'Oh my gosh.' And you still need to be nice and professional, and you have to look good, and you're not sleeping at all," she said on the Aug. 14 episode of Jennie Garth's I Choose Me podcast.

Despite the circumstances, the actress described the set as "such a loving atmosphere" and something she was "so lucky" to have been a part of.

"I felt like as much as, you know, getting up at 4:30 in the morning to get to work can be a pain, and not being with your kids is awful, I loved being there so much and I felt so much validation, and I felt so good," she continued.

"I spent the first year or year and a half in Modern Family being terrified because everybody there was so funny and so good at what they did. I'm like, 'I don't belong here.' I mean, how did you feel when you did a sitcom?" Bowen continued, asking Garth. "Suddenly, you were on a set, you were in front of a live audience, having to get the big laughs."

In the series, Bowen, a real-life mom of three, was a mom to kids to Haley Dunphy (Sarah Hyland),  Alex Dunphy (Ariel Winter) and Luke Dunphy (Nolan Gould).

Speaking about how the younger cast members grew up in the spotlight, she applauded them for having "so much more composure about who they were in the world."

"I was in awe of their composure ... they were living out loud and on social media and getting hate on social media," she said. "And I'm like, 'Maybe you should just not be on Twitter or Instagram, and maybe you shouldn't do those things.' And they were like, 'We're fine. We're fine.'"

While detailing how she dealt with being in the public eye, she also opened up about often being pitted against her costar, Sofía Vergara. 

"It's this scarcity mindset that only one woman can be happy at a time," she said. "And I was like, 'Oh, no. I love Sofía, and I love how different we are. And I love – she is funny and self-effacing and bawdy, and she loves life, and she loves dancing and eating cake and all these things.'"

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Modern Family can be streamed on Hulu.