Drew Barrymore Says Not Having a ‘Traditional Family’ Is ‘Devastating’

Drew Barrymore is opening up about raising daughters as a divorced mother.

Barrymore, 50, spoke to Moon Zappadaughter of Frank Zappaon the Friday, March 21, episode of her eponymous show, where she asked Moon, 57, about her new book which touches on her experience as a parent.

“Do you think that we also are so determined to be these capable moms, these accountable, these trustworthy…and did you beat yourself up about every little thing along the way?” Barrymore asked.

When Moon answered yes, Barrymore revealed she was hoping to raise her daughters, Olive, 12, and Frankie, 10, in a more traditional setting. She shares Olive and Frankie with ex-husband Will Kopelmanwhom she divorced in 2016.

Related: Drew Barrymore’s Cutest Family Photos With Daughters Olive and Frankie

Girl gang! Drew Barrymore is a proud mother to her two daughters, Olive and Frankie. “It’s like constantly playing mental chess on how to get something done in that moment, and I hope I’m doing it as gracefully as possible,” the Never Been Kissed actress quipped to InStyle in July 2015 of parenthood. “It’s so amazing—after your kid is (…)

“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,” she said.

Barrymore endured a notoriously turbulent childhood that included a stint in rehab at age 13 and emancipation from her parents by the time she was 15.

“It’s weird stuff like that. It’s soup when you’re sick,” she continued. “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?’”

Barrymore has talked about the feeling of her dream family slipping through her fingers before. In a January 2025 interview with AARP The MagazineBarrymore recalled pulling herself through the difficulties of her divorce by thinking of her kids.

“My dream family was falling apart and I didn’t know how to put one foot in front of the other,” she said. “And I had grown up so fast but now I didn’t know what age to feel — I just knew that my life was heavy, and painful and sad — and I sat in that for a while.”

“Eventually, thank goodness, I lifted myself out of it. I had two kids and I had to figure it out,” she added.

Part of figuring it out, she said, was to take a break from acting to be there for her daughters.

“I was in my early 40s, and not learning how to be my own healthy, independent individual, how to be the parent I dream to be,” she said. “Being other people doesn’t help me figure that out right now. And the long hours of doing films were hours I wouldn’t have with my kids. I wasn’t going to do that.”