Sarah Hyland has not has an easy journey through life. Despite starring on Modern Family , one of the most successful sitcoms of all time, she’s faced an incredibly challenging medical history from the time that she was a child.
Sarah has revealed she’s had 16 surgeries in her life, including two kidney transplants.
Sarah was born with kidney dysplasia , which means that her kidneys did not grow normally when she was in the womb, which prevents them from doing their job in your body.
In 2015, Sarah went into kidney failure, and had to receive a transplant from her father.
Unfortunately, the transplant was not successful, and Sarah had to undergo dialysis, which is when a medical device filters the blood for you that your kidney is unable to.
She was able to receive a second kidney transplant, this time from her brother.
Sarah was initially hesitant about accepting, saying, “When a family member gives you a second chance at life, and it fails, it almost feels like it’s your fault. It’s not. But it does.”
“I didn’t want to fail my little brother like I failed my dad,” she said.
The second transplant was a success, although it hasn’t come without it’s struggles for Sarah. One of these struggles has been the bulge over her kidney.
“When they do a kidney transplant, they connect the new kidney to your old kidneys in front,” Sarah explained.
This creates a bulge on her lower abdomen. “I call it my KUPA: kidney upper [expletive] area. Always have. Will forever.”
Sarah explained her feelings on her KUPA are complex.
“It’s this bittersweet moment of, ‘Oh my gosh. I have new life,’ but then also being an actress and being held up to this sort of pedestal of how you’re supposed to look,” she said.
“Sometimes I have complete meltdowns in the middle of fittings,” she said.
“Being like, ‘KUPA will show. I really want to wear this dress and you can’t hide it.'”
This issue came up in the past when fans criticized her caption on one of her Instagram posts.
Sarah had shared some red carpet pictures of herself, claiming she was wearing two sets of Spanx.
She joked, “Why diet if you can hide it?” Some fans were a bit upset by Sarah’s joke due to the fact that the actress is quite slim, and therefore “didn’t need” to be wearing Spanx at all.
Sarah revealed that the Spanx were not to make her look thinner, but to downplay the bulge from her transplant.
It makes sense that Sarah might feel a bit self-conscious about the bulge, especially given the media’s general love of jumping to the conclusion that celebrities are pregnant.
However, Sarah just took a big step forward in acceptance of her KUPA.
Sarah performed her new song, “Met At A Party” with Jordan McGraw at the Teen Choice Awards this week, and proudly showed off her bulge.
“Yesterday I had my first nationally televised performance of a song I did,” she captioned the post.
“I was terrified. I was excited. There was a PHENOMENAL crowd supporting us the entire way through. Thank you so much to everyone who watched!”
Sarah had one last person to thank, though.
“And a final thank you to my ever changing self confidence for making the decision to not wear spanx and let my KUPA (kidney upper [expletive] area) shine like the badass [expletive] she is,” Sarah finished .
Her comments exploded with love and support from friends and fans alike.
One comment had a new acronym for KUPA: “Kicking, undeniably, performance ass!” and others raved about her performance being seen internationally.
“HaKUPA Matata,” wrote ‘Gossip Girl’ star Michelle Trachtenberg.
Another comment read, “Your KUPA is a champion. That performance was amazing. We are giving you a standing ovation.”
This isn’t the first time Sarah’s brought attention to her health issues and how it’s affected her body.
Four months ago Sarah took to Instagram to bring awareness to the scars on her abdomen from her multiple kidney surgeries.
Sarah shared this photo on her Instagram.
Sarah captioned her photo, “Hey @theellenshow I know you’re besties with Jen but does she wear your underwear outside of her jeans like me? #showyourscars”
People reached out in the comments section to thank her for speaking out.
People like this commenter, who explained that she hoped her child would grow up to be as proud of his scar as Sarah is.
Other people shared their own stories.
A lot of comments told their own stories about their kidney transplants or surgeries, and how it took them a long time to learn to love and show off their scars.
Sarah is a huge advocate for those living with chronic conditions.
Sarah shared this magazine cover with the caption, “I say words here that hopefully others can relate to and feel like they’re not alone.”
She continued her message of awareness.
Her dedication is inspiring, and so is her story. As one commenter said, “An inspiration to all of us who are struggling!!!”
Congratulations to Sarah and her KUPA for a stunning performance!
We look forward to seeing so much more from Sarah, whether it’s acting, singing, or just being her undeniably real self.
And, of course, congratulations to her on her recent engagement!
Sarah and her boyfriend, Wells Adams from The Bachelor franchise, recently got engaged after two years of dating. It looks like everything is coming up Sarah!
