Drew Barrymore's Mom Let Her Drink And Smoke At Age 9, But Sugar Was Off Limits
The actor and talk show host opened up about her childhood on her new podcast.
It’s no secret that Drew Barrymore had a complicated childhood. She was thrust into the spotlight at age 7 thanks to a star-making role in Steven Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and subsequently fell into a cycle of drug and alcohol abuse.
Her mother, Jaid Barrymore, reportedly escorted her to many Hollywood parties, and Drew began drinking by the time she was 9, smoking pot at 10, and doing cocaine by 12, according to her 1990 autobiography Little Girl Lost. By the time she was 13, she was placed in a mental institution.
"I was a real wild child, and I just got so out of control that no one knew what to do with me,” Drew tearfully recalled on her talk show last year. "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."
Now in the inaugural episode of her new podcast Drew’s News, the 47-year-old actor admitted that although alcohol and drugs were on the table at a young age, her mom wouldn’t let her eat any sweets.
While discussing Canada's Candy Funhouse and their opening for a chief candy officer with fellow actor and friend Rob Lowe, Drew said she was one of those kids who was deprived of sugar, so she would sneak it whenever she could.
“My mom wouldn’t let me eat sugar,” she said. “Studio 54, and weed, and alcohol — totally fine. But don’t touch that sugar! And, I did. I snuck chocolate in the closet!”
Drew went on to say that “all the other habits were out in the open,” but the sugar sessions happened behind closed doors.
“Literally, I would hide it in a box in my closet and just [eating noises],” she said, joking, “And then make my Barbies dry hump!”
As for her candy of choice, Drew said she “loves” Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.
Drew recently opened up about her sobriety, admitting last year that drinking “was something I realized just did not serve me and my life.” She also shared that she sought help following her 2016 divorce from Will Kopelman, with whom she shares two daughters — Olive, 9, and Frankie, 8.
“I wasn’t doing very well, and I just wanted to go talk to some people and how to pull myself out of a hole, and I had these two kids that I had to fight for and I needed help,” she told Machine Gun Kelly in an interview on her show. “I started reaching out to different people and eventually, I really made some big, sweeping changes in my life, and I got on a whole new track — not back on track, but a brand new one that I helped build.”
At least now Drew can enjoy as much sugar as she’d like!
