Julie Bowen Jokes She Wishes Taylor Swift Was Around to Take Her Out amid Her Own Divorce (Exclusive)

Julie Bowen says she wishes Taylor Swift had been around during her 2018 divorce.

While speaking exclusively with PEOPLE at the Step Up Inspiration Awards — held at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles on Friday — Modern family The alum, 53, opened up about how friend and former co-star Sofia Vergara is in the middle of a divorce and why she wishes Swift, 33, had been “around” during her divorce.

Revealing that Vergara, 51, is “great” after her split from Joe Manganiello in July and that she “has a wonderful family surrounding her and wonderful friends,” the actress joked that she “doesn’t need Taylor Swift to lead The Game. She’s good.”

“I’m so happy that all these other girls are going to the games with T Swifty,” Bowen playfully added. “I wish she was with me.”

Swift attended the Kansas City Chiefs vs. New York Jets game at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey last weekend with friends, including Sophie Turner, who is currently divorcing Joe Jonas.

Julie Bowen attends the Step Up Inspiration Awards at the Skirball Cultural Center on October 6, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.

Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty

Bowen and ex-husband Scott Phillips finalized their divorce in September 2018 after 13 years of marriage. Bowen filed for divorce that February.

The actress and Phillips have three children: son Oliver (16) and 14-year-old twins Gustave and John.

When it comes to whether she’s dating right now, Bowen told PEOPLE that her sons are her main focus.

“No. No. No, I’m seeing three guys,” she joked, noting, “And they’re terrible dates. They never pay and they always just insult me.”

“They’re great. They’re really great, but they’re teenagers, so it’s mostly grumbling, and mostly grumbling and selling soap, because I’m doing JB Scrub, which is my skin care line for youth and teenagers,” she continued.

The actress added that she and her twins have something quite unusual in common. “I share clothes with my kids all the time,” Bowen said.

“They are 14-year-old boys. I love their clothes. High tops and baggy khaki pants, hell yeah,” she described, though she admitted that Vergara helped her embrace the dresses, stating, “Sofía is someone who always inspired me and gave me the courage to put on a dress and stand up and say, ‘U it’s okay to be female.’ It doesn’t show weakness and it’s okay to accept it.”

Sofia Vergara, Julie Bowen.

Christopher Polk/Getty

In July, Bowen posted a rare photo of her three sons as she revealed that one of her twins needed an emergency room during a family vacation.

“It’s not a vacation without a trip to the ER for a broken wrist… Both bones are broken, but John is on the mend and his brothers were total champs,” she captioned the post.

Along with the X-ray image, Bowen also posted a photo of her three sons. As John lay in the hospital bed with his arm covered in blankets, his two brothers stood nearby. The actress later informed her followers that John is fine.

“Down but not out! John is back in the boat after hitting a fake wave yesterday,” she captioned a follow-up Instagram post published the same day.

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When she’s not tending to family emergencies, the actress keeps busy with her brand JB Skrub and said she’s “learning every day” when it comes to work.

“It’s crazy,” Bowen remarked of how the brand took off. “Just me and that other mom from the school said, ‘Our kids stink, it’s disgusting and we don’t like what’s out there.’ So because of COVID, we developed this line, which is crazy because I had no idea what I was doing. And now every day, I get spreadsheets and phone calls, saying, ‘Oh, I’m a business bitch.’ ”

“But I really don’t know what I’m doing. I study every day. The good news is that I have a lot of faith in the product, because guys get overlooked,” she added. “They go to the bathroom and … let me tell you. I do their laundry. They are not clean, they do not take care of all the parts. So our slogan is pits, nuts, asses — in that order,” Bowen continued.

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Source: HIS Education