Drew Barrymore opened up about the realities of parenting in an emotional moment with her studio audience.
The “Drew Barrymore Show” host reflected on how raising her children helped her overcome many personal challenges. She explained that becoming a mother gave her a renewed sense of purpose. The role also inspired her to create a more stable, loving life for her family.
Drew Barrymore Doesn’t Believe Parenting Comes Naturally
Drew Barrymore recently opened up about a topic close to her heart: parenting. The single mother of Olive and Frankie candidly shared that she is still learning and growing as she navigates raising her daughters.
In an Instagram clip, she told her studio audience, “None of us are born with the manual. Having kids in my late ’30s, I felt like a child playing house.”
She continued, “Freaking out. We’re kids raising kids. And yet, we’re supposed to have all the answers.”
“Know what to do, and the confidence to go with it, saying, ‘You have that authority.’ A lot of us kind of raise ourselves more than we realize. Maybe we have issues with our families and then issues with the way we raised ourselves.”
“And then all of a sudden, here you go. Here’s some kids, you know what to do. No I don’t! I never did.”
She concluded, “My biggest life motto I’ve realized that is ‘failure is not an option.’ So we just have to figure it out.”
Drew Barrymore Wants to Do Things Differently For Her Daughters Than How She Was Raised
In a 2025 interview with Stephen Colbert for “The Late Show,” Drew Barrymore said she was determined to do things differently as a mother than how she was raised in the ’70s and ’80s.
“If you don’t grow up in a perfect way with a perfect family, you fear the blueprint and you go, I want to do things differently,” the talk show host told Colbert.
She felt it was karma when she gave birth to her first daughter Olive. When she became pregnant with her second daughter, Frankie, Barrymore said it “humbled me in a way that I’ve never know and I’ll never forget that moment. I realized I was put on this planet to raise girls.”
She concluded, “Getting a grasp on it was the most exciting thing in the world. And I just know that I’m all in, I care so much and I am imperfect but I am going to do everything I can to do this to the best of my ability, and it’s fun, humorous, delicious and great.”
Drew Barrymore was previously married to Will Kopelman, her daughter’s father. The couple divorced in 2016 and maintains an amicable relationship.
She told viewers on “The Drew Barrymore Show,” “You’re never not together if you have children. All the modern family and the exes aside, you’re just parents. That’s what makes sense to me….I say this, just trying to put one foot in front of the other with a lot of love and good intentions: High road, baby. Less traffic.”
“The Drew Barrymore Show” airs in syndication weekdays.
