Spoiler alert, obviously...

Modern Family killed off one of its long-serving characters last night.

Fans of the US sitcom – which airs on Sky1 here – had been playing a guessing game ever since September, when co-creator Christopher Lloyd teased that a ‘significant’ character would pass away.

‘We’re handling some bigger life events in this season,’ he said in an interview. ‘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.’

And last night viewers of the ABC comedy learned that it was DeDe, the passive-aggressive ex-wife of Ed O’Neill’s character Jay, as played by Shelley Long, who had passed away.

The death happened off-screen, with Jay reporting the news to his children Claire and Mitch, telling them that she died peacefully in her sleep.

The characters then reminisce about her, with Mitch revealing how she accepted his sexuality and Claire recalling: ‘I remember once that Mom told me that I ate ice cream like a prostitute.’

DeDe made her first of six appearance on Modern Family appearance during season one in 2009. She was last seen in the previous ninth season.

Published: 25 Oct 2018