Ariel Winter & Luke Benward: How Their ‘Unexpected’ Romance Started & What She ‘Loves’ About Him

Ariel Winter seemed happily single after getting out of her long-term relationship with Levi Meaden. But she’s been packing on PDA with Luke Benward and their friendship has turned to romance.

There’s no better way to build a solid relationship than being friends with someone first. That’s what turning out to be the case for Ariel Winter and Luke Benward. The 21-year-old Modern Family star just split with boyfriend of three years Levi Meaden four months ago and now she’s been spotted packing on PDA on dates with the handsome 24-year-old Dumplin’ star. The two had been friends and now it’s turned into romance between the pair.

“Ariel never anticipated for any romantic feelings to develop with Luke, but things unexpectedly changed very gradually over the past few months between them. Ariel has been such close friends with Luke for years and never looked at him as anything more than a friend,” a source tells HollywoodLife.com EXCLUSIVELY.

“But after her split from Levi, Luke was really there for Ariel and she was able to lean on him for support. Things just shifted and it happened very organically. Neither of them expected it to happen, but it just did. Ariel is still on really good terms with Levi, but she’s open to seeing where things go with Luke,” the insider continues.

“Ariel finds Luke to be a complete breath of fresh air. She finds him very intriguing and unique and someone who makes her feel like a complete person. She loves spending time with him and is very interested to see where it all goes,” a second source tells us EXCLUSIVELY. “She is taking things as they come and is looking forward to riding out the holidays with him and seeing what it could become. So far so good as everything seems to be working out really will between the two. All of her friends can see that she is pretty happy with everything which makes them happy themselves.”