Drew Barrymore on sobriety: ‘Giving up alcohol has been one of the most liberating things in my journey of life’

Actress Drew Barrymore has opened up about her sobriety journey in her monthly magazine, Drew. In an essay titled Take Care of Yourself, the 47-year-old star said that giving up alcohol “has been one of the most liberating things in my journey of life.”

Barrymore, who stopped drinking in 2019, used her December issue to highlight the importance of self-care. “Maybe our definition of love changes throughout our lives,” she wrote in her essay. “But I truly believe so much love goes outward. And it can feel selfish to turn that spotlight on ourselves. To make room for me? It just doesn’t track sometimes.”

“One of the bravest things you can do,” she wrote, “is slay those dragons and finally change an awful cycle in which you’ve found yourself stuck. For me, it was to stop drinking.” The Charlie’s Angels actress added that giving up alcohol had allowed her “to finally become free of the torture of guilt and dysfunction.”

This isn’t the first time Barrymore has opened up about her addiction issues. The actress rose to fame when she was just a child thanks to her role in Steven Spielberg’s hit movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. But her sudden rise to stardom took a toll. In past interviews, she admitted that she was eating ice cream with a splash of Baileys by the time she was seven; going out for drinks with Hollywood stars by age nine; smoking joints at 10 and snorting cocaine at 12. When she was 13 years old, her mother had her hospitalized after she attempted suicide.

But the Hollywood star, who also hosts The Drew Barrymore Show, has come a long way from her tumultuous youth. In a CBS interview in 2021, Barrymore said she hadn’t drunk for two years. “It was something I realized just did not serve me and my life,” she said. “It’s been long enough where I’m in a lifestyle that I know is really working on a high road for my little journey, and there’s so much peace finally being had where there were demons.”

This journey has also allowed her to consider the possibility of a new romance. “I can’t wait to meet that easygoing person with whom I can just be happy,” she wrote in her essay. “But I haven’t found them yet, though I believe they are out there.”

Barrymore, who has been married three times, has two daughters: Olive, 10, and Frankie, eight, whose custody she shares with her third ex-husband, actor Will Kopelman. The actress seems to have overcome her addictions and difficult childhood and is now enjoying the prime of her life with a successful movie career, her own magazine and a TV show.