Drew Barrymore made an emotional confession about being a single mother.
The actor, 50, spoke candidly about becoming a parent during a conversation with singer Moon Zappa on The Drew Barrymore Show on Friday. Barrymore is the mother of two daughters, Olive, 12, and Frankie 10, who she shares with her ex-husband, Will Kopelman.
She started the conversation with Zappa by asking a question about everyday family dynamics.
“Do you think that we also are so determined to be these capable moms, these accountable, these trustworthy…?” Barrymore asked. “And did you beat yourself up about every little thing along the way?”
After Zappa responded by saying she did, the Charlie’s Angels star explained some of the emotional challenges she faces as a mother.
“Everything to me was very devastating and took me a long time to recover from if it wasn’t in the traditional family dynamic that I swore I would do for my family because I did not grow up that way,” Barrymore, whose parents were divorced, added.
Barrymore and Zappa, the latter of whom is preparing to release her memoir Earth to Moon, continued to talk about the lack of stability during their respective childhoods. The Wedding Singer star recalled how she felt about other children with parents who were very involved in their lives.
For example, it was “weird” for her to see her classmates turn to their parents when they were sick, since she didn’t have that kind of relationship with her mom or dad.
“I remember all the kids at school would go into the office to call their parents when they were sick and I could never get a hold of anybody,” she said. “And I was so jealous of those kids who would call and be like, ‘Mom, dad, come pick me up.’ I just would sit there and be like, ‘What’s that like?’”
Barrymore’s parents, Jaid Barrymore and the late John Barrymore, divorced in 1984, when their daughter was nine years old. At the age of 14, Barrymore emancipated herself from her parents, which was a decision she made after a two-year stay at a drug rehabilitation center.
“When I got emancipated by the courts at 14 years old, the umbilical cord was severed, and I have not been the same since,” she wrote in a 2023 blog post. “It was necessary for me to step away and start to become my own person. And at the age of 14, my own parent.”
She’s also previously opened up about her complicated relationship with her mother and how they’ve worked toward reconciliation over the years. She also shared that she has financially supported her mom.
“I know that must be so hard for my mom,” she told Vulture in 2023. “It’s like she gets all the heartache and [her father] gets given a free ticket.”
As a mother herself, Barrymore has also spoken out about some of the parenting advice that ultimately changed her life.
“You specifically changed my life,” she told parenting expert and psychologist Dr. Aliza Pressman during an episode of The Drew Barrymore Show in 2024. “I had my daughter Olive, who Aliza knows, she was going through a phase, this was years ago, where when she would get upset, I would try to go to her and I would try to make it better.”
However, that was the “last thing [her daughter] needed or wanted,” which Barrymore “didn’t understand.” Ultimately, Pressman instead taught the actor how to “regulate” herself in these moments.
“You said walk in the room and just say: ‘I understand we’re having a moment, I’m here on the other side of this door for you, waiting. When you are ready, I am here,’” Barrymore recalled. “And I would walk out and take a deep breath. I got the best results I’ve ever gotten in my parenting from that and it was never a way in I had thought of.”
