Modern Family‘s Ty Burrell Adopts a Daughter

03/18/2010 at 12:50 PM ET
Kevork Djansezian/Getty

He may play a hapless father of three on the hit show Modern Family, but Ty Burrell had little real-life parenting experience to draw on — until now.

The actor, 42, and wife Holly have adopted a baby girl, the couple tell PEOPLE exclusively. Daughter Frances Burrell arrived Saturday, Jan. 30.

Earlier this month, Burrell, 42, told PEOPLE that one of his favorite aspects of playing Phil Dunphy on the cult comedy is how much the character cares about his kids. “He’s not necessarily good at the things that he does,” the actor laughs, “but he really tries hard!”

FILED UNDER: Births , Exclusive , News

Share this story:

Your reaction:

Add A Comment

PEOPLE.com reserves the right to remove comments at their discretion.

Comments + Add a comment

Showing 12 comments

Chelsea on March 18th, 2010

LOVE him on Modern Family! He seems like a really nice, fun guy. I bet he’ll be a wonderful father! Congrats!

Jess on March 18th, 2010

Congratulations!!!! It is so wonderful to hear you have done this. I adopted a little girl about 18 months ago and it has been the best thing my family ever decided to do. Our little girl is everything we ever wanted. I am sure yours will be the same. It is amazing how you can love someone so much the second they are in your arms the rush of love is overwelming.

Beth on March 18th, 2010

congratulations to the new parents! We had the privilege of adopting our three kiddos, and they couldn’t be more ours. Advice? Just love her! She’s yours!

Mom from Southern Illinois on March 18th, 2010

My husband and I recently adopted a baby girl. We has a 13 year old biological son and while waiting for our daughter to be born we both wondered if the love for her would be what it is for our son. There is no doubt that the love is the same. We love her like she is our biological child. Adoption is wonderful and totally worth it. I would totally recommend adoption. God gave us a gift that we wouldn’t of gotten otherwise!

Luna on March 18th, 2010

Congratulations Ty and Holly. Adopting is a beautiful thing (as I know from experience) and not only do you enrich the life of the child, you enrich yourself.

lover on March 18th, 2010

love her like she is your own! i have an adopted aunt and she went through a lot in the first 2 years of her life that affected her whole life and for some reason she has never felt that my grandparents loved her as her own. her life has been really hard and sad because of this. so my advice would be to love her like your own!

@Mom from Southern Illinois – i used to live in SoIl 🙂

aeg on March 18th, 2010

I was adopted 40 years ago and I adopted my daughter 4 years ago. Best things that ever happened to me.

Adoption connects people who are meant to share their lives. I couldn’t possibly love my daughter or my parents more, even if we shared DNA.

Enjoy your new family!

Eleanor Bratton on March 18th, 2010

Most of your child’s needs will be the needs of all children, but she does have a different backstory. Make a place for it from the beginning. My children have never not known their stories because they are captured in our albums and videos and the tales of their journeys into our family; journeys which touch on two families and, in our case, two countries. Don’t make yourself crazy trying to sliver out adoption issues from regular developmental stuff, but read and be prepared to deal with questions that pop up at the unlikeliest times. Delight in the uniqueness and wonderfulness of this unique way to create a family.

Julie on March 18th, 2010

The best advice I received was from my daughter’s Guatemalan foster mother. She wrote us a beautiful letter and it concluded with the phrase, “Love her very much.” Which, 2 years later, I understand that it sums up parenting rather nicely.

And as an aside, I long for the day when the focus is not on who adopted or gave birth but to simply enjoy a headline saying: “This or that celebrity was blessed to add to their family.”

Ivonne on March 18th, 2010

I don’t have advice but I do have congrats! I LOVE Ty and Modern Family. Congratulations on welcoming a new little daughter into the Burrell Family!

Amy on March 19th, 2010

We learned that adopting is more complicated than just filling out paperwork, talking to a social worker, and waiting. Lots of potential leads fall through. In order to be successful, look into several possibilities simultaneously, and persist persist persist! Never give up. Go into it with the attitude that you will never give up, and have a backup plan if one option doesn’t work out. We now have two absolutely perfect children, but we traveled quite a road to have our family.

The other piece of advice: Prepare well before the child comes home. We adopted internationally. Attachment disorders are a real possibility when you are not adopting a newborn. Prepare for the worst case of it as possible, and you’ll be prepared for anything. (Adoption Learning Partners has online courses. Some are free if you don’t need the certificate at the end.) It will make your transition seem much easier — you’ll find that your child only has a few of the issues mentioned, but if you are prepared for all of them, it doesn’t matter which ones he/she has, you’ll be the best parent on the block when it comes to dealing with them.

Donna on March 19th, 2010

I adopted a little girl nearly 7 years ago and it was absolutely the BEST THING WE EVER DID WITH OUR LIVES! The love is just ENORMOUS! Enjoy every second because it goes by way too fast! ALL GOD’s blessings to her!