For Drew Barrymore, mother didn’t always know best, but she’s ready to let go of the past.
In an interview with Vulture published Monday, the actress and talk-show host opens up about her complicated relationship with her mother Jaid Barrymore, who also served as Barrymore’s manager during her meteoric rise to child stardom.
While reflecting on how her mother’s existence presents an obstacle to her healing, Barrymore says she doesn’t have the “luxury” of moving on compared to people whose parents have already died.
“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,” Barrymore told the outlet. “I actually want her to be happy and thrive and be healthy. But I have to… grow in spite of her being on this planet.”
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Despite the intimate revelation, Barrymore says her conflicting feelings about her mother aren’t malicious. “I dared to say it, and I didn’t feel good,” she later says in the interview. “I do care. I’ll never not care.”
Barrymore was born to actors Jaid and John Drew Barrymore in 1975. The Emmy-nominated actress became emancipated from her parents during her rocky youth, which included drug-fueled outings to nightclubs with mother Jaid, a compulsory stint in rehab at age 13 and a pair of suicide attempts. Barrymore’s fraught relationship with her mother stands in contrast to her relationship with her father, who died in 2004 following a bout of multiple myeloma.
“I just understood what an incapable human being he was,” Barrymore says of her late father. “I know that must be so hard for my mom. It’s like she gets all the heartache, and he gets given a free ticket.”
But Barrymore appears to be open to reconciliation, revealing to Vulture reporter E. Alex Jung in a text message that she messaged Jaid for her recent birthday.
“She told me she loved me and she was proud of me,” the text read. “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. And the fact that she loves me with my truth and my honesty is the best time I have ever heard her say it.”
“I forgive my mom. I forgive my dad,” Barrymore concluded. “I’ve never forgiven myself, but I’d like to and I’m ready to.”
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