Julie Bowen says she and her Modern Family co-star Sofia Vergara were painted as ‘witches’ as she opens up on their ‘feud’ – and teases reboot of the beloved sitcom

Julie Bowen has revealed that she felt she and co-star Sofía Vergara were unfair to each other while filming Modern Family.

The 54-year-old actress tells this week’s issue of Stellar magazine tThat the pair are actually very good friends.

“Often people will say, ‘Why didn’t you guys get along?’ And I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? “I love Sofia, and as far as I know she loves me,” she said.

Claire said she grew close to her co-star, 52, despite feeling pressured to ‘hate each other’.

“I was texting her this morning. It’s ridiculous that when two or more women come together, it creates some kind of scarcity mentality within the women themselves, about competing for resources. [those] Because, I guess, they’re men, Claire continued.

“There’s also this idea that when women get together, they’re like witches from a male perspective… ‘They’ll become too powerful… What if they find out they don’t need us?’

“Anyway, I’m calling BS. I like women. I love all shapes, shapes, sizes, and a woman like Sofia, who is so comfortable in her own skin, is who she is and has such a great sense of humor. I bend over. I love her’.

Claire, who played Claire Dunphy on the long-running sitcom, said elsewhere in the interview that she’s totally up for a Modern Family reboot.

‘I’m in. Can you catch everyone else? You can be a producer and be on set every day. You would have so much fun,” she said.

On a recent episode of Jennie Garth’s podcast I choose meshe opened up about her relationship with Vergara — who recently said she’s excited to reunite with her costars to make a Modern Family reboot.

“They were just determined to pit us against each other, like we hated each other,” she said. “It’s this scarcity mentality that only one woman can be happy at a time.

‘And I thought, “Oh no. I love Sofia, and I love how different we are,” she added before highlighting the qualities she loves about her costar.

“And I love – she’s funny and self-effacing and bawdy, and she loves life, and she loves dancing and eating cake and all that stuff,” she said.

“I felt it on Modern Family,” she recalls. “The press kept trying to make me and Sofia, like Betty and Veronica.”

Bowen also compared the non-existent conflict in her friendship with Vergara to the gossip Garth and the late Shannen Doherty faced while filming Beverly Hills, 90210.

“And I know they did that to you and Shannen. I mean, I remember,” she told the podcast host.

The two-time Emmy winner also said she couldn’t fathom why there is a belief that two women can’t coexist and be in the spotlight at the same time.

“I don’t understand why society doesn’t have space,” she said. “It goes back to the witches, we’re too scary when we’re all together.”

She also addressed feud rumors that continued throughout the eighth season of Modern Family.

To put an end to the ongoing speculation, she said she made a bold statement during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

“Every night I get a call or email saying, ‘So and so trash magazine will run a story about you being icy towards Sofia Vergara because you’re jealous of her fame,'” she recalled.

“So I emailed her last night and we’ll talk,” she continued. “And I’m like, ‘What do I say?’ Because we are friends.”

She remembered Vergara telling her, “Please just borrow my blouse.”

Bowen said she felt saddened by the false claims surrounding her and her castmate who became a close friend.

“I thought that was very disappointing on the part of the press, but I never participated in that,” she said.

“That’s a scarcity mentality, and there’s no such thing as, ‘Oh, if one woman is doing well, that means others have to step back.’

“I can’t support that,” she said.

And since then, Bowen said Vergara has remained close even after their long-running series concluded with its eleventh and final season in 2020.

“I learned so much from being with her about what it is to be a really powerful, completely independent woman,” Bowen said of the America’s Got Talent judge.

“No one would mistake her from behind for a 14-year-old boy, like they always do to me,” she added.

Most recently, Bowen celebrated her friend’s 52nd birthday in July by paying a sweet public tribute, posting a throwback photo of them sharing a hug at Vergara’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremony in 2015.