Drew Barrymore has come a long way from being a child star in Hollywood. Now, the actress bares it all on her CBS talk show The Drew Barrymore Show, where she has openly discussed struggling with sobriety since she was a young girl.
But in a new interview with Us Weekly, Barrymore admitted she’s “not mad” about her tumultuous childhood, which saw her drinking and clubbing at the age of 9.
“Part of why I’m single now is because I had so much fun. Part of why I don’t miss drinking is because I did. I’m glad I had a nudist, exhibitionist, wildflower, wild-child, little wood nymph time,” she said.
Barrymore continued,”I’m glad I partied. I’m glad I was wild with boys. I’m glad I was wild in every way, shape and form because it led to my contentedness with a quiet life now. And it was fun. I’m not apologetic. I’m not mad at myself about it.”
The actress added that her life is still a “work in progress” since she quit drinking in 2019. But she’s learning not to be so hard on herself.
“Whatever difficult times I’ve gone through professionally, I believed I could rewrite things. Then in my personal life, I was a failure and a broken person. I can’t f***ing believe I’m alive sometimes,” she admitted to Us Weekly.
She continued, “And it’s the first time in my life, going on 49, that [the personal and professional] are complementing each other. Time is the greatest asset we have — it allows things to get better, to shift, to have light come into a dark space. It has taken my whole life to get here, but I’m so happy to be out of the jail in my mind.”
Barrymore’s career began when she was just 11 months old and landed a commercial role, but she soon captured hearts everywhere she starred in E.T. at the age of seven. From there, she regularly partied at Studio 54 and earned a reputation in nightlife. She entered rehab at the age of 13, before soon after emancipating herself from her parents at 15 and moving out on her own.
The actress confessed that she’s been working through “how insanely unforgiving” she has been with herself her entire life since earning that “bad girl” reputation when she was young, especially now that she’s a mother to two girls, Olive, 11, and Frankie, 9.
“I’ve had a “bad girl” narrative on my back my whole life. I thought I deserved bad things. Now I’m raising two daughters. I can’t do that to myself anymore,” she said.
Instead of focusing on finding a partner, Barrymore said she’s more invested in raising her daughters and maintaining her life as it is.
“I also have two kids. I have so much love. I’m so lucky. There’s nothing missing,” she said. “Being in a minivan with eight girls singing songs and driving to the movie theater or some corn maze, I’m like, ‘This is the greatest thing I’ve ever experienced.’ I didn’t experience that kind of life when I was young. And it feels like such a privilege to witness it and be a part of it and be cultivating it.”
