Drew Barrymore has spoken candidly about how her relationship with alcohol has impacted her dating life, with the actress revealing she hasn’t been in a relationship since she stopped drinking.
The 48-year-old opened up about her single relationship status during a recent episode of her show, The Drew Barrymore Show, during which she spoke to Melanie Lynskey and her husband, Jason Ritter. After the movie producer recalled how he’d stopped drinking before he began dating Lynskey, Barrymore reflected on her own struggles with alcoholism.
“I’m not sober, I don’t work a program,” she explained, before revealing: “Alcohol was my poison, and I haven’t had a drink in four years.”
She then said that her experiences have led to a false “narrative” about her suitability as a partner.
“The narrative that one creates is that: ‘I can’t be with someone,’” Barrymore continued. “And I haven’t been in a relationship since I stopped drinking.”
However, the Charlie’s Angels star said that she’s excited to view herself through a different perspective, where she will be enter into a relationship.
“I’m really looking forward to one day not having that bad girl narrative, the instability, the, ‘I’m not someone who’s right to be with anyone for their sake,’” she added.
While Barrymore revealed that she hasn’t been in a relationship for a while, she did reveal last year that she’s dating again. During an episode of The Drew Barrymore Show in December, she told Whoopi Goldberg about a concern she had while reentering the dating world.
“Because it had been so many years, I started to get a little worried, like I’m too good at being alone,” Barrymore admitted.
Previously, the 50 First Dates star, who split from ex-husband Will Kopelman in 2016 after four years, also spoke candidly about how she hadn’t been “intimate” with anyone in over six years. “Since entering life as a single mom, I have not been able to have an intimate relationship,” she wrote on her personal blog in October 2022.
Barrymore continued: “So I’m not a person who needs sex and has to go out there and engage with people on that level. I am someone who is deeply committed to fostering how young girls, my daughters, and myself as a woman, are supposed to function in this world.”
In 2016, the actor announced the end of her marriage to Kopelman, who she shares two daughters, Olive, 10, and Frankie, eight, with. She was also previously married to Jeremy Thomas from 1994 to 1995 and Tom Green from 2001 to 2002.
Over the years, Barrymore has spoken candidly about her decision to quit drinking and focus on herself. In an essay published in her magazine, Drew, in November, she wrote that giving up alcohol has been “one of the most liberating things in [her] life”.
She then reflected on how important it’s been for her to prioritise herself, even when it has felt “selfish” to do so.
“Maybe our definition of love changes throughout our lives, but I truly believe so much love goes outward,” she wrote. “One of the bravest things you can do is slay those dragons and finally change an awful cycle in which you’ve found yourself stuck. For me, it was to stop drinking.”
