Drew Barrymore has had a tumultuous relationship with her mother - but says she has never wanted her dead. Photo / Getty Images
Drew Barrymore has had a tumultuous relationship with her mother - but says she has never wanted her dead. Photo / Getty Images
Drew Barrymore is furious with the media after the star was allegedly quoted saying she “cannot wait” for her mother, Jaid Barrymore, to die.
The actress and TV host said “tabloids” were to blame for the quotes, which were initially in a New York Magazine profile and then used by multiple news outlets.
“To all you tabloids out there, you have been f***ing with my life since I was 13 years old. I have never said that I wished my mother was dead,” Barrymore firmly stated in a video on Instagram.
“How dare you put those words in my mouth. I have been vulnerable and tried to figure out a very difficult, painful relationship while admitting it is difficult to do while a parent is alive and that, for those of us who have to figure that out in real time cannot wait... as in they cannot wait for the time, not that the parent is dead.
“Don’t twist my words around or ever say that I wish my mother was dead,” she went on. “I have never said that. I never would. In fact, I go on to say that I wish that I never have to live an existence where I would wish that on someone, because that is sick.”
Barrymore was vulnerable in the New York Magazine piece, addressing her tumultuous childhood and relationship with her mum.
ET star Drew Barrymore poses for a photograph with her mother Jaid Barrymore June 8, 1982 in New York City. Photo / Getty Images
“All their mums are gone, and my mum’s not. And I’m like, ‘Well, I don’t have that luxury’. But I cannot wait,” Barrymore told the publication.
“I don’t want to live in a state where I wish someone to be gone sooner than they’re meant to be so I can grow. I actually want her to be happy and thrive and be healthy. But I have to f***ing grow in spite of her being on this planet.”
However, later in the interview, Barrymore regretted her severe comments about her mother.
“I dared to say it, and I didn’t feel good,” she said. “I do care. I’ll never not care. I don’t know if I’ve ever known how to fully guard, close off, not feel, build the wall up.”
The Charlie’s Angels actress has been candid about her relationship with her mother, who was not only her manager but also took her to Studio 54 and other Hollywood parties while she was a kid.
Drew Barrymore and mother Jaid Barrymore attend the premiere of Without You I'm Nothing on June 12, 1990. Photo / Getty Images
By the time she was 12 years old, Barrymore had already been admitted to rehab for drugs and alcohol and, when she was 13 years old, her mother placed her in a psychiatric ward.
“I think she created a monster, and she didn’t know what to do with the monster,” she confessed to Howard Stern in 2021.
A year after she was admitted to the psychiatric ward, she was emancipated from her parents at the age of 14.
Drew Barrymore and Jaid Barrymore during The 12th Annual MTV Video Music Awards in 1995. Photo / Getty Images
While the Blended star found it in her heart to forgive her father, John David Barrymore, before his death in 2004, she was never able to make amends with her mother. However, Barrymore told New York Magazine that she doesn’t “blame” Jaid for the obstacles she faced.
“I choose very consciously not to see my life as things that have been done to me,” she said. “I want to see it as the things I did and chose to do. I’m not attracted to people who lay blame on others. I don’t find it sexy.”
Barrymore - who has daughters Olive and Frankie - opened up about her relationship with her mum in December, sharing that she “will always support her”.
“I can’t turn my back on the person who gave me my life,” she told People. “I can’t do it. It would hurt me so much. I would find it so cruel. But there are times where I’ve realised that our chemistry and behaviour will drum up a feeling in me where I have to say, ‘Okay, I need a break again’.”
