Drew Barrymore speaks out about her parents and how she still financially supports her mother

‘I just understood what an incapable human being he was,’ actor says about her father who died in 2004

Drew Barrymore has spoken out about her childhood and parents, with the actor explaining how she still financially supports her mother, Jaid Barrymore.

The TV host, who legally emancipated herself from her parents at the age of 14, spoke candidly about complex family relationships during an interview with Vulture, published on 5 June. She confessed that when her father, John Drew Barrymore, was suffering from myeloma, she had a change in perspective about him.

“I just understood what an incapable human being he was,” she explained. She also noted that she paid for her father’s hospice care before he died in 2004.

The actor then acknowledged that her relationship with her mother Jaid is a bit different, as they still haven’t fully reconciled since her teenage years. Nevertheless, Barrymore shared that she still financially supports her mom.

“I know that must be so hard for my mom,” she explained. “It’s like she gets all the heartache and [her father] gets given a free ticket.”

Elsewhere in the interview, the 50 First Dates star candidly revealed how she’s been jealous of her peers whose mothers are no longer around.

“All their moms are gone, and my mom’s not,” she said. “And I’m like, ‘Well, I don’t have that luxury.’ But I cannot wait. I don’t want to live in a state where I wish someone to be gone sooner than they’re meant to be so I can grow.”

She went on to describe the mixed feelings that she has towards Jaid, adding: “I actually want her to be happy and thrive and be healthy. But I have to f***ing grow in spite of her being on this planet.”

However, she noted that she later had some regrets about saying these remarks, due to the suggestion that she had any animosity towards her mother.

“I dared to say it, and I didn’t feel good,” she added. “I do care. I’ll never not care. I don’t know if I’ve ever known how to fully guard, close off, not feel, build the wall up.”

Over the years, Barrymore has spoken out about her complicated relationship with her parents, who divorced in 1984. Since first rising to fame at the age of seven, she has published multiple memoirs about her experiences with addiction as a teenager, including 1990’s Little Girl Lost and 2015’s Wildflower.

In honour of Mother’s Day last month, she shared an Instagram post about her mother admitting her to a youth program for drug rehabilitation when she was 13.

“I was in for the long haul,” she wrote about her experience at Van Nuys Psychiatric. “I bonded with a lot of the kids, because like me, they did not know where to put their anger and they did not know how to live life anymore without the need to get high or self-destruct in some form and fashion.”

The Drew Barrymore Show host also recalled how she ultimately became her “own parent” at the age of 14. “When I got emancipated by the courts at 14 years old, the umbilical cord was severed, and I have not been the same since,” she wrote.

Barrymore concluded her candid post by describing how she recently texted “Happy birthday, Mom” to Jaid. She then recalled her mother’s response and how much it meant to her.

“And she wrote back, ‘Thank you so much! I’m incredibly proud of you and send you love,” she wrote. “It was the biggest gift I could have ever received. To know that she is proud of me.”

Vulture also reported that, weeks after the interview was conducted, Barrymore sent the publication a text about her message to her mother. She further explained how Jaid’s text had stuck with her.

“I don’t care how old you get or how big your mission is. When your mom tells you she loves you, you revert back to small,” Barrymore wrote in her text. “And the fact that she loves me with my truth, and my honesty, is the best time I have ever heard her say it.”

Meanwhile, Barrymore is also a parent herself. She shares her two daughters, Olive, 10, and Frankie, nine, with ex-husband Will Kopelman.