Ariel Winter trolled for requesting money for sick cousin, asked why she can't pay it herself
'Modern Family' star Ariel Winter was at the receiving end of a lot of hate after tweeting a link to a GoFundMe page to gather funds for her cousin afflicted with a life-threatening disease. In the plea for her cousin Tino Tsutras, the actress said: "This is my cousin Tino. If you can, please consider donating to his recovery fund. Anything helps. I love him so much."
According to the GoFundMe page, Tsutras was held on life support in the ICU in an Atlanta hospital after falling ill, and was later diagnosed with Haemophilus Influenzae, which is linked to meningitis.
The bone of contention for many seems to have been why an actress who makes the amount of money that Winter does feel the need to ask her fans and followers to donate - why can't she pay for it herself?
The hate didn't stop coming with rather radical reactions to an earnest plea.
Winter, caught off-guard, and visibly hurt by the hate she received, tweeted about the insensitivity of Twitter.
While the GoFundMe campaign has met its goal - it was set at $15,000 but has accumulated $19,420 at the time of writing this story - Winter isn't the only actor to have received hate for asking for funds.
Her 'Modern Family' colleague and close friend Sarah Hyland is not far off, unfortunately. She was not only trolled but also received a lot of flak for sharing a GoFundMe for her 14-year-old cousin's funeral expenses late in 2018. The page was set up by her cousin's mother and sisters to help raise money for the funeral and medical expenses. Twitter took no time to tear the 28-year-old to shreds, saying that the actress, who as of 2017 made roughly $2.2 million per season of 'Modern Family', could have borne the cost herself.
At first, Hyland pleaded with her Twitter followers to keep the "negative thoughts or opinions about the tragedy that happened.. to keep them to themselves". But it was all in vain as the negativity got to her and she decided to take a break from Twitter.