Drew Barrymore's divorce led to 'alcohol as a solace' as friends including Cameron Diaz said it was 'difficult to watch'

In an interview with The LA Times, Drew Barrymore's divorce and her struggles with sobriety were discussed, as the actress and talk show host spoke about her life and career.

In a Los Angeles Times interview, Drew Barrymore spoke candidly about her life and how she has struggled with demons such as alcoholism throughout her life. In one poignant part of the article, the interviewer revealed that following her 2016 divorce from her husband Will Kopelman, Drew struggled and turned to alcohol as a 'solace' and even her therapist was forced to end their relationship.

"The divorce cratered her, and alcohol became her solace. Her therapist grew so concerned that he ended their relationship, telling her he could not treat her if she didn’t give it up. Close friends threatened to follow suit," the article revealed.

An interview with some of Drew's friends revealed that while they supported her at first, after a certain amount of time they felt that they had to show her some tough love.

"We were like, 'You’ve gotta snap out of it,'" said Chris Miller, a showrunner at The Tonight Show who previously worked at Barrymore’s company for 24 years. "'We fully understand that this is a total f— for you. But you’ve got two healthy kids, a fantastic career and incredible friends.’ And sometimes you have to be reminded of that."

Cameron Diaz, who has been friends with Drew since they were teenagers and starred in Charlie's Angels together also commented that her post-divorce struggles were 'difficult to watch'. "But I knew that if we all stuck with her and gave her the support she needed, she would find her way," she said. "I have absolute faith in her. You can’t even comprehend how hard it was to be her as a child, and then she shot out the other end with the ability to save herself."

Despite her friends' intervention, Drew says that it wasn't until she landed her own show in 2019, that she realized she needed to cut out alcohol altogether. "I think the opportunity at a show like this really hit me," she said. "I was like, ‘I can’t handle this unless I’m in a really clear place.'"

Drew isn't associated with AA and doesn't refer to herself as 'sober,' the interview revealed that this is because she isn't 'some perfect Puritan' and doesn't want to be perceived as such. Reflecting on this struggle she commented, "I kept thinking, ‘I’ll master this. I’ll figure it out.’ And finally, I just realized: ‘You’ve never mastered this, and you never will.'"

Her own struggles with alcohol at such a young age have now caused her to have additional concerns about her daughters Olive and Frankie who are now 10 and 8. Her former sister-in-law, Will Kopelman's sister Jill Kargman, who is still close with Drew, commented on how this has affected the star.

"She has strong instincts as a mother because she has a playbook of what not to do from her childhood," said Jill. "She’ll say, ‘God, Olive’s so precocious,’ because she’s a New York kid — really smart and sophisticated — and Drew will get scared. And then in the next breath be like, ‘But she’s not at Studio 54, which is what I was doing at that age.'"

Drew herself commented that she has trauma from being hauled into rehab at the age of 13 and still thinks that she will lose everything. "I will always have the ‘They’re coming, they’re coming’ mentality,” she said. “It’s the one thing that, unfortunately, I can’t shake. I’m pretty sure that this will all go away at any moment, I will get locked up again, and I will lose my job."

Despite these fears, Drew concluded by saying that her life as a mother has provided her with a newfound solace and she realizes that once she is out of the rat-race of working in Hollywood, she has something to fall back on. "My worth has been so wrapped up in this job and this life, because it’s given me so much,” she said. “I realized that just with me and my girls, I am truly happy. I’d always thought I’d be on this hamster wheel for this whole life. But maybe there will be something different before the lights go out."