Drew Barrymore is getting candid about the unexpected challenges she’s experienced in her lifelong journey to sobriety.
In a Los Angeles Times interview published on Monday, the actor and daytime talk show host said that Barry Michels, her therapist of more than a decade, dropped her as a client following her 2016 divorce from Will Kopelman.
At the time, Drew said, her tehrapist had expressed concern over how much her alcohol intake had grown in the wake of the split. She and Will, a former actor turned art consultant, were married for about four years.
“[My therapist] just said, ‘I can’t do this anymore’,” the Santa Clarita Diet star told the LA Times. “It was really about my drinking.
“I said, ‘I get it. I’ve never respected you more. You see I’m not getting better. And I hope, one day, that I can earn your trust back’.”
Among those who were also worried for Drew’s well-being was her longtime friend and Charlie’s Angels co-star Cameron Diaz.
Though the experience of seeing Drew in pain was “difficult to watch,” Cameron said she never lost “absolute faith” in her pal.
“You can’t even comprehend how hard it was to be her as a child,” Cameron said. “And then she shot out the other end with the ability to save herself.”
Drew found a new motivation to stop drinking after the 2019 premiere of The Drew Barrymore Show, which was renewed by CBS for a fourth season earlier this year. She said her therapist has since taken her back as a client, too.
“I think the opportunity at a show like this really hit me,” Drew told the US outlet, noting that she doesn’t describe herself as “sober” and doesn’t attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. “I was like, ‘I can’t handle this unless I’m in a really clear place’.”
A Golden Globe winner for 2009’s Grey Gardens, Drew shot to fame at the age of six following her scene-stealing performance in E.T.
While she continued her early success with roles in movies like Firestarter and Cat’s Eye, she’d undergone treatment for drug and alcohol addiction by age 13. About a year later, she was granted legal emancipation from her mother, Jaid.
“Maybe people think, like, I figured out so many problems when I was young, because it was so hard then,” Drew told CBS Mornings in 2021.
“We continue to confront things with each decade of our life that almost surpasses what we thought we had seen. And I’m interested in that conversation ― that we don’t fix it, move on and it never breaks again. We are on that roller coaster.”
Help and support:
- If you need help with a drinking problem, call the Alcoholics Anonymous national helpline for free on 0800 9177 650 or email help@aamail.org.
- For advice on how to reduce drinking, visit Drinkaware's website or Alcohol Change UK.
- Find alcohol addiction services near you using this NHS tool.