Julie Bowen Jokes About Growing Apart from Her Teenage Sons — and Having to Use Snapchat to Contact Them: ‘I Got Dumped’

Mar. 15, 2025

Julie Bowen.Photo: Randy Holmes/ABC/getty

Julie Bowen’ssons are growing up — and growing apart from their mom.

TheModern Familyalum, 54, appeared on a Thursday, Sept. 12 episode ofToday with Hoda & Jennaand spoke about her teenage sons — Oliver, 17, and twins John and Gustave, 15 — whom she co-parents with ex-husband Scott Phillips.

Noting that she’s been spending a lot of time away from them as she’s worked on her new showHysteria, Bowen says she’s found a creative way to stay in touch with her sons.

“Luckily, they’ve all grown and different rates and at different times have all gone in that heavy sleep cycle. Right now, cause I’m working on the East Coast and they live in L.A., the only way I communicate with them is through Snapchat,” the actress says.

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“Do they talk to you about things?“Jenna Bush Hagerasks a little later in the conversation.

“You mean like girls? No. I have a lot of purposefully scattered about the house books that are informational about sex, drugs, what to avoid, how to not get people pregnant, not get diseases. I’m constantly talking about things…” Bowen jokes, trailing off.

Co-hostHoda Kotbthen asks Bowen how she connects with her teenage sons.

“I do say no phones in the car. They’re allowed to listen to whatever music they want, but that in and of itself you’re just like, ‘My eyes are bleeding,' " Bowen shares. “But yeah, I won’t let them look at their phones.”

“‘Hi… it’s me… mom… I birthed you?’” Bowen mimics. “They don’t care.But they do get excited. They’re excited forHysteria. They’re excited forHappy Gilmore. They get excited for new stuff.”

Although Bowen doesn’t often share photos of her sons, last July she posted araresnap on Instagram of all three of them,along with an X-ray photoillustrating a broken wrist.

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

source: people.com