Drew Barrymore speaks to Oprah Winfrey about her troubled childhood
Drew Barrymore spoke to Oprah Winfrey about her battles with motherhood as she tries to raise 4-month-old daughter Olive away from the spotlight.
The interview is the first time ever that Drew Barrymore has opened up her home she shares with husband Will Kopelman to cameras, and it’s only fitting she did it for her neighbor.
Oprah Winfrey and Drew Barrymore both own homes in the posh Santa Barbara, California enclave of Montecito.
“In Drew’s backyard swing,” Oprah Winfrey posted on her Twitter account last week.
“Just discovered we live less than 2 miles from each other.”
Drew Barrymore talked about how she plans to shape her new career as a mother as well as troubles with her own, whom she didn’t invite to her wedding in 2012.
“She was not there, which was very hard,” the actress said.
“We both discussed it and thought it would be best to keep her away from the ceremony.”
Drew Barrymore and her mother had a tumultuous past, anchored mostly in Drew’s rebellious childhood in which she started abusing drugs and alcohol from an early age.
She had her first drink at 9, began smoking marijuana at 10, and took cocaine at 12.
Drew Barrymore had multiple stints in rehab in her early teens and at 15, she moved into an LA apartment on her own after being granted an emancipation decree from her parents.
Oprah Winfrey asked Drew Barrymore specifically what she could learn from her childhood – a question that brought the star nearly to tears.
“As a kid what I craved the most was just believing that [my mom] was going to be there,” she said.
“I think the world offers so many wonderful varieties of obstacles, but that shouldn’t be one for kids – is the worry that <<my parents won’t be there>>.”
Oprah Winfrey also asked her about how she plans on telling her daughter about her own series of missteps – especially in the world of Google.
“I will absolutely instill in her that you cannot be ashamed of the journey that it took to get where you are if you are proud of yourself.
“But I will also try to instill on her that I did not have guidance and that is why I lived my life that way.”
Drew Barrymore continued, with the most telling bit of advice: “There is no option for her to take that path because she has guidance.”
The full hour long interview is set to air on OWN on Sunday.