Drew Barrymore was 7 when E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial made her a movie star in 1982.
Within the year, the self-described “party girl” was hitting nightclubs with her mum.
She developed a drinking problem that saw her go to rehab at age 13, followed by an 18-month stint in a psychiatric hospital, where she was treated for alcohol and drug addiction, before being emancipated from her parents at age 14.
It’s little wonder that in raising daughters Olive, 11, and Frankie, 10, with her ex Will Kopelman, the star is a little wary about the parenting path that lays ahead.
“My daughter who is … about to turn 12, she really wants to be 16. Going on 25,” Barrymore, 49, spilled on the May 1 episode of her eponymous talk show during an interview with actress Jessica Capshaw, herself a mum of four.
“It’s so triggering! What do I do?!”
She then revealed she leans on other famous mum friends for help.
“Not to drop a name, but one of my best friends happens to be Cameron Diaz,” she said. “And I was like, ‘And the way these girls dress today!’ And she goes, ‘Oh come on. You remember the ’70s with bikini tops and dolphin shorts!’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, but it felt different!’ And she was like, ‘Come on. We all wore tube tops and tiny shorts.’”
The light conversation isn’t the first time that Barrymore has opened up about how parenting has been a struggle at times because of her own untethered and unconventional childhood.
“I didn’t have parents, I was the parent to them,” Barrymore told The Mail on Sunday in 2021. “It confuses me when people get so righteous about parenting. It makes me feel defensive and small. I’ve got love and humour but we’re all learning on the job. I don’t want to be my kids’ friend – I am their parent.”
A couple of years later, she admitted on the Chicks in the Office podcast that she often “felt like a failure”, especially when her kids were younger.
“I am a work in progress, I had to learn to parent myself, but that parenting style wasn’t going to work for my kids … That was much more survival, and you know, not what I would want for my kids.”
Tough stuff aside, Barrymore says she revels in watching her daughters pursue their passions.
“Whether my one daughter is doing figure skating or my other daughter is doing soccer, I will be there at every event,” she told People magazine in March.
Her kids, in turn, have given her their blessing for a return to acting. “I think the girls are like, ‘Yeah, Mum, we’re doing great. If you want to go do that, go back and do things,’” she told Us Weekly recently.
But they won’t be following in her footsteps just yet.
“My kids ask me all the time – they would love to be in film or on social media or sing or whatever. I always just say, ‘School plays, theatre camp, everything [yes]. But being in the public eye, [no] until…’” she told People. “And then they say, ‘Well, what’s the number?’ And I always say, ‘I know you want an answer, and I know the fact that I can’t give you one that’s so specific isn’t satisfying, but it’s … going to be when I think you’re ready.”
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