In September 2014, Sarah Hyland obtained a permanent restraining order against her then-boyfriend Matt Prokop — and the court documents she filed described years of choking, threats, and psychological abuse that the public knew almost nothing about. What those documents also revealed was that when Hyland finally decided to leave, she didn’t do it alone: she called her Modern Family co-star Julie Bowen to be there with her. What happened that day is the part of this story that doesn’t get told enough.
What the Court Documents Actually Said
Hyland and Prokop met around 2009, when both were teenagers, and co-starred in the 2011 Disney Channel film Geek Charming. By the time their nearly five-year relationship ended, Hyland had documented a pattern of abuse in legal filings that were specific, dated, and deeply disturbing. According to those court documents, Prokop repeatedly degraded her verbally, threw objects at her, and on one occasion in May 2014 — following an argument about what she was wearing — pinned her against a car and choked her until she could neither breathe nor speak.
When Hyland moved to end the relationship, the threats escalated. Prokop sent a barrage of emotionally disturbing text messages and voicemails, threatened suicide, claimed he would set her home on fire, and told her she would never see her dog again. This is a recognizable pattern in abusive relationships: the moment a partner tries to leave is often the most dangerous. Hyland’s case documented it in stark, legal detail — something that rarely makes it into the celebrity coverage cycle, which tends to reduce these situations to a ‘split’ and a source quote. the documented psychology behind why leaving is the most dangerous moment
The Night Julie Bowen Stood in the Room
When Hyland decided to end things, she didn’t just make a phone call — she assembled people. She asked Bowen, who played her mother Claire Dunphy on Modern Family, along with other colleagues, to be physically present at her home to help her end the relationship safely. That word — safely — does a lot of work. It acknowledges what leaving an abusive partner actually involves.
When Prokop arrived and found Bowen and others in the house, he lost control. He ran into the backyard screaming and threw a lighter at Bowen. It was Bowen who looked at Hyland and told her directly: you are not safe here. Leave now. That intervention — a co-worker choosing to stand in a room knowing it might get volatile — is the kind of support that doesn’t have a formal name but can determine whether someone gets out or doesn’t.
Survival Isn’t a Single Moment — Hyland Has Said So Herself
In the years since, Hyland has spoken openly about the long aftermath of what she lived through. She has been candid that leaving doesn’t reset the damage. “The emotional trauma and scars on the soul stay there, and they impact you for the rest of your life if you don’t get help,” she said. “It’s an endless battle of correcting yourself and having self-love.” That honesty — naming the ongoing cost rather than packaging recovery as a clean arc — is part of what makes her advocacy meaningful rather than performative.
Today, Hyland is married to The Bachelorette alum Wells Adams, with whom she wed in August 2022. She has used her platform to advocate for open conversations around domestic violence, specifically around the tactic abusers use to isolate their partners from the people who might notice something is wrong. The fact that Bowen noticed — and showed up — is the part of this story worth sitting with.