We Now Know Which ‘Modern Family’ Relo Dies In The Final Season & Oh Man

Last month Modern Family co-creator Christopher Lloyd dealt us the devastating blow that the story arc for the final season involves the beloved characters dealing with a “significant” death.

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“We’re handling some bigger life events in this season,” he told Entertainment Weekly“We do deal with a death, which is certainly a topic that families have to deal with, and on television, it’s not easy to do because that’s a heavy subject. But at the same time, it would seem unusual for a family not to go through it.”

He revealed that the soon-to-be deceased wasn’t any of the lead stars, however he promised that he/she is a “significant character on the series” and the death “will be a moving event — and an event that has repercussions across several episodes.”

Since then fans have been wracking their modern brains, trying to figure out who it could be.

Would it be Cam (Eric Stonestreet) and Mitch‘s (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) mate Pepper (Nathan Lane) or Phil‘s (Ty Burrell) Dad Frank Dunphy (Fred Willard) or Gloria‘s (Sofia Vergara) ex/Manny‘s (Rico Rodriguez) Dad Javier (Ben Bratt)?

Turns out none of the above. The character who passes away is…

The mother of Mitch and Claire (Julie Bowen) and the ex-wife of Jay (Ed O’Neil), DeDe (Shelley Long).

“It occurred to us that death is a giant part of the family experience and while Phil had lost his mother in a previous episode, we’ve never seen the entire family have to deal with such a loss. It seemed like an interesting thing to have happen,” co-creator Steve Levitan told The Hollywood Reporter.

“She’s directly involved with three of our characters and she touched everybody’s life in some interesting way. It seemed like the right character to put everybody through something. She seemed like right character because she so directly affects so many of our characters.”

He adds that the decision to off the eccentric matriarch wasn’t simply because they wanted to “do a death episode.”

“It came from [a conversation of], ‘What would happen if DeDe died?’ That’s how it started. I don’t know that this was part of it at the time, but I lost my mom suddenly two years ago and that experience of getting that call and gather as a family was very fresh to me,” Levitan said.

“I thought that was the interesting part [of the story] and the biggest challenge was how do we get this big monumental and sad moment and still get some comedy out of it. We liked that challenge.”

Sarah Hyland (who plays Haley) paid tribute to her TV grandma via Instagram, writing:

“We’ll always love you grandma❤️ So blessed to have worked with such an iconic woman like Shelley Long.”

Dede has been a recurring character since the show’s first season and has been the source of a many a funny so her passing will defo be a sad moment.

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