NEWSDrew Barrymore Confesses It's 'Devastating' She Doesn't Have a 'Traditional' Family Dynamic After Will Kopelman Divorce
Drew Barrymore opened up about the difficulties of raising kids with ex-husband Will Kopelman.
March 22 2025, Published 10:15 a.m. ET
Drew Barrymore just opened up about her "very devastating" divorce like never before.
On a Friday, March 21 episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, the Never Been Kissed actress, 50, got candid about her unconventional family dynamic and what it's like raising her two girls, Olive, 12, and Frankie, 10, with ex-husband Will Kopelman.
Drew Barrymore discussed her 'devastating' family dynamic after her divorce from Will Kopelman.
Barrymore introduced Frank Zappa's daughter Moon Zappa as a guest on the show to highlight her new book, Earth to Moon, which discusses the difficulties of parenting. The women used the memoir as a jumping-off point for a candid conversation on growing up in a broken household.
"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," the TV host told Moon of raising her kids post-divorce.
Drew Barrymore opened up about how it feels to raise her kids after divorce.
The film star — who got emancipated from her parents at age 14 due to her father's substance abuse issues — got real about how it felt growing up without their support.
"It's weird stuff...it's soup when you're sick. 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.'"
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Drew Barrymore got emancipated from her parents at age 14.
Drew struggled to maintain a healthy relationship with both parents as a child. When she was just nine, her mother, Jaid, introduced her to drugs and partying at Studio 54. By age 13, she was in a hospital for a year and a half being treated for alcohol and drug addiction.
Although her relationship with her mother is complicated, Drew assured Moon that she does love her mom and is "so grateful."
"If she hadn't allowed me to go and explore all these areas, then I wouldn't have figured out who I was," she said.
Drew Barrymore had a strained relationship with her parents as a child.
Drew is using her family context as a learning experience so she can raise her daughters the way she wishes she was raised.
"When I found out I was having Frankie, my second daughter, it humbled me in a way that I’ve never known and I’ll never forget the moment because I realized I was put on this planet to raise girls. And that everything in my life was captured and a butterfly net to try and get this right," the A-list star explained on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on January 28.
"If you don’t grow up in a perfect way with a perfect family, you fear the blueprint and you go, I want to do things differently. I felt unconfident, like this was the stakes of my life and it took a few years, honestly, to have that confidence," she added.
