Drew Barrymore comes from a long line of famous entertainers. Her dad was actor John Barrymore Jr. Her uncle and aunt were Oscar winners Ethel and Lionel Barrymore. Her grandfather, John Barrymore Sr., was a big movie star in the 1920s and '30s. Unfortunately, her lineage also came with a family history of alcohol abuse.
Drew is proud to be the one to break this cycle. She opened up about it in a People magazine interview published on April 14, 2024. It has not always been easy but she knows it’s the right choice for her, her kids, and future generations.
Drew no longer drinks and is proud of this. She feels like she is setting a new precedent for her family. “I think, for me, stopping drinking is one of the most honoring things I can do to the Barrymore name because we have all been such hedonists,” she explained.
Just because Drew is sober, that doesn’t mean she has all the answers. She simply knew this was the best move for her and her family. “Don’t look to me as the pillar of health and wellness and having it all together,” she joked.
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“It’s just like, you know what? This didn’t work for our family, and I’m going to stop it,” she went on to say. “I’m going to be the one to break the link in that chain and maybe my kids and their kids will be better off for it.”
Drew’s father was an alcoholic. Her grandfather died from the disease. With these examples, Drew found herself hooked on both drugs and alcohol at just 13 years old.
Drew was sent to the Van Nuys Psychiatric Hospital in Los Angeles to go through its rehab program. She returned to the center in September of 2021 for a segment of her talk show. It was an emotional episode.
“I was a real wild child and I just got so out of control that no one knew what to do with me,” she explained on the show. “They drove me here in the middle of the night and they walked me through those two doors and when you go through those two doors you do not come out. And I was there for a year and a half.”
Drew wants to celebrate all aspects of her life, even the hard and complicated parts. “I will never lose sight of this part of my story and I have seen and been through things and they’ve helped me just recognize in all of us that we go through stuff,” she mused. “And it can’t be embarrassing. It has to be our strengths, it has to be something that we can be proud of because we overcame it and we look back with honor and humor.”
Drew made the decision to stop drinking in 2019. She realized she had been numbing the pain stemming from her 2016 divorce from Will Kopelman. She knew this wasn’t a healthy way to cope. She announced her sobriety in 2021.
