Drew Barrymore has been incredibly honest about her difficult childhood over the years. At just 13 years old, she opened up about starting drinking alcohol at 9, smoking marijuana at 10, and using cocaine at 12. After being forced into rehab at 13, she was granted legal emancipation at 14. It’s been a long journey to get clean throughout the years, but even in the darkest times of her addiction, The Drew Barrymore Show host wouldn’t classify any of those times as her “lowest point” in life. Shockingly, her rock bottom actually had to do with her kids!
In PEOPLE’s 50th Anniversary Issue, the 50 First Dates star opened up about her Jan. 1999 cover interview with PEOPLE as a teen, and the difficult time that followed. “Oh, I remember this cover story so well, and it was very empowering,” she told PEOPLE today. “And when I look at it now, I don’t see sadness or tragedy. I love that I was a walking cautionary tale because then when we talk about how we raise our kids in a world where they’re all out there on social media, we all have to be almost in the mindset of what Hollywood parents were like, which is: Do I want to protect my child? What are the boundaries? What should I be teaching them? We’re all rowing in that boat.”
“So I actually feel like this gives me such a beautiful little merit badge, like a scout’s honor to get into that conversation and know how to navigate that as a parent myself,” she added.
Barrymore, who is mom to Olive, 11, and Frankie, 10, with ex-husband Will Kopelman, said remembering her battle with addiction is “extremely positive” because she is in a better place now. “I know that I’m not lost anymore,” she told the outlet. “I may feel lost again at different moments, because you never figure it all out and it never all comes together. You just keep finding things. And if you hold onto those findings, then you have this collection of wisdom and you don’t feel as lost the next time. Your compass is a little more tuned in.”
The Flower Beauty founder said that looking at the 1999 cover also kind of makes her laugh now. “If you thought this was a low point, no. Divorce with two kids, that was a much more difficult moment for me because all of a sudden it wasn’t about [me], it was about [my kids],” she explained.
“And so whatever you think will be your lowest point or your hardest moment, it might not be. There might be another one down the road and it’s okay. You will get through it,” Barrymore said.
Barrymore and Kopelman divorced in 2016, after four years of marriage. She called the aftermath of her divorce “messy” and “painful” in a 2022 interview with PEOPLE. “After the life I planned for my kids didn’t work out — I almost think that was harder than the stuff [I went through] as a kid,” Barrymore said. “It felt a lot more real because it wasn’t just me. It was about these kids that I cared so much about.”
“And then I probably cared so much that I was only giving to them and not taking care of myself. It was a messy, painful, excruciating, ‘walk through the fire and come back to life’ kind of trajectory,” Barrymore continued, adding that she tried to “numb the pain and feel good” through drinking.
“It was my kids that made me feel like it’s game time,” the Charlie’s Angels star continued, revealing that she quit drinking and went to therapy to help her cope.
With how much Barrymore went through as a kid, it makes her even more anxious about her own kids. In a Feb. 2024 interview with Us Weekly, she explained, “[Motherhood is] so surreal [for me]. When I see one of my kids going through something that reminds me of something I went through, I just go straight to fear, and then I have to talk myself off the ledge and get proactive and empathetic and [focus on] discipline and boundaries and guidance.”
She went on, “I have no blueprint, a crazy track record, and there’s nothing I’ve ever wanted to get more right in my life. But it isn’t a matter of right and wrong. It’s a matter of doing your best.”
These celebrities overcame their childhood trauma to be better parents to their own children.
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