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Drew Barrymore has lived a wildly exciting life, even by Hollywood standards.
Drew (48) was a child star who shot to fame in ET the Extra-Terrestrial, infamously began drinking at age nine and was in rehab for the first time by the time she was 13 years old.
She went on to become a '90s screen siren, rom-com heroine, entrepreneur, award-winning actress, host of the Drew Barrymore Show, and a mom to two daughters, Olive (11) and Frankie (9) with her ex-husband, actor Will Kopelman.
"I’ve had a 'bad girl' narrative on my back my whole life," she told Us Weekly recently.
"I thought I deserved bad things. Now I’m raising two daughters. I can’t do that to myself anymore. Kind of like the drinking — I’m picking off things one at a time, going, 'I can’t carry you anymore. You aren’t good for me.'"
Despite her many ups and downs - she was emancipated from her parents when she was 15 and has been married and divorced three times - Drew has no regrets about her past, or past relationships.
"I’ve had great relationships, most of whom I’m still really good friends with. [The secret to that is] enjoying your history and never allowing yourself to be with someone who’s going to beat you up about it. That’s so toxic."
In fact, she attributes her "crazy youth" as the secret to her calm adult years.
"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 it. I’m glad I had a nudist, exhibitionist, wildflower, wild-child, little wood nymph time.
"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."
READ MORE| Drew Barrymore opens up about motherhood: 'I felt like a failure'
On her lifelong struggle with sobriety, the actress says she no longer has cravings for alcohol.
"I have alcohol all over my house. I serve people drinks. It’s a confident choice. But it took me 35 years to get there. So, once I got there, I was really done.”
Drinking, she says, was a “coping mechanism," that emboldened her, took away her anxiety and made her feel like she could deal with anything.
“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."
The single mom also shared that she'd been cat-fished on a dating app recently.
She told Ross Mathews, the co-host of her show, that, "this guy on my app said he was the quarterback for the Los Angeles Rams.”
But after texting back and forth she discovered he was a musician who thought he was "being cute".
She's content being single and living out of the limelight.
“I have so much love. I’m so lucky. There’s nothing missing. Being in a mini van with eight girls singing songs and driving to the movie theatre or a 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.
“I think we seek love; we need love. It is the reason to live. But I have it. It’s just in a different form.”
