Sarah Hyland’s Ex Matt Prokop Arrested for Alleged Assault on Girlfriend
Matt Prokop was arrested for an alleged assault on his girlfriend in his hometown of Victoria, Texas on Saturday, May 18, Us Weekly confirms.
Victoria Police were called after Prokop’s girlfriend told another person that he had assaulted her, officers told TMZ. The couple had left the area by the time police arrived, but the authorities were soon called to a reported domestic disturbance involving the duo. Per the police, Prokop’s partner said he had shoved her and slammed her head into something.
The officers on scene reportedly saw enough evidence of injury to arrest the High School Musical 3 star. Prokop, 33, was booked into Victoria County Jail on charges of aggravated assault with a weapon and resisting arrest. He bonded out on the two charges.
Us Weekly has reached out to Prokop for comment.
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Prokop has faced allegations of partner abuse in the past. His Disney Channel costar Sarah Hyland (who starred in 2011’s Geek Charming with him) accused him of being abusive during their five-year relationship, which ended in 2014. Hyland, now 33, accused Prokop of once choking her in a successful filing for a restraining order shortly after their breakup.
"His grip was so tight that I could not breathe or speak," she alleged in the court docs. "I was scared and in fear for my life."
Hyland was so frightened by Prokop’s behavior that she claimed to have called Modern Family costar Julie Bowen to her home on the night she planned to end her relationship with Prokop. In the docs, she said that Prokop “relentlessly bombarded [her] with vile, threatening and emotionally disturbing texts and voicemails including his own suicide threats” following their split. Prokop was ordered by the court to keep his distance from Hyland for three years.
Hyland has shared little of the experience in the interim, quoting poetry by Robert Frost and Dylan Thomas when asked about the experience by Meredith Viera in October 2014.
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“People have to go through things in order to become the person they are today, and that’s that,” she said, avoiding mentioning Prokop by name at any point.
Hyland married Wells Adams in 2022. The former Bachelorette contestant met Hyland after he slid into her Instagram DMs, and the pair began dating in 2017. Hyland recently jumped into the reality TV world herself with a two-season stint hosting Peacock’s Love Island USA. She stepped down from that role in March.
If you or someone you know are experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support.