Drew Barrymore did not let difficulties bog her down in 2022.
The Drew Barrymore Show host sat down with People Magazine for a candid interview where she divulged her the ‘crippling’ difficulties' she faced this year and how she managed to get back up.
Opening up about her efforts to have her kids grow up with a family, since she didn’t, so her divorce from art advisor Will Kopelman in 2016 caused her far more trouble that she may have expected.
She left California for New York to be closer to Kopelman's family, and the first winter brought dark days. “It just took me down. There are times where you can look at someone you think is a strong person and see them so broken and go, 'How the f--- did they get there?' And I was that person. I broke.”
Barrymore then began coping with drinking to “numb the pain and feel good” which turned into an addiction. The actress then had to come back to life after “a messy, painful, excruciating walk through the fire.”
And so as she nears 50, Barrymore is finally starting to put herself first. She's making a resolution to be more patient but she can check off some of her big goals: Her girls are happy and on their own paths. She has a job she loves that feeds her curiosity and brings her fulfilment – host of The Drew Barrymore Show, her Drew's News podcast as well as running her Flower Beauty and Beautiful home line.
"This has been the best decade of my life, without question," she said. "It wasn't just the most awesome, it was the one where I feel like I've slayed more dragons than I ever have in my whole life."
“As a kid and even in my 20s and 30s, happiness seemed like this very giddy, excited optimism," she shared. She now accepts that happiness isn't all sunshine and rainbows. "It is a choice. You have to work for that. It is hard to get to some days. And so when you've harnessed it, that feels like such a better victory." And once you have it? "You hold on tight."