Drew Barrymore’s turbulent childhood - from teen drug abuse to divorcing parents
Drew Barrymore has carved out a hugely successful career which has seen her become one of the darlings of Hollywood.
The actress, 48, has been a big player in a number of huge big-screen hits including 50 First Dates, Never Been Kissed and The Wedding Singer.
She has also turned her hand to presenting duties and hosts the popular Drew Barrymore Show and is a big-time producer. She was set to host for the 2023 MTV Movie & TV Awards this weekend but stepped down in solidarity with striking Writers Guild of America members.
Her success comes after she burst onto the scenes as a child star in the iconic Steven Spielberg flick ET aged just seven, but she has always been open with her troubled childhood which followed.
Here, we take a look at Drew's early years and the issues she has so brilliantly overcome.
James Corden confesses to Drew Barrymore why he's leaving The Late Late Show
Drew Barrymore starred in ET as a seven-year-old (Corbis via Getty Images)Addiction issues
Drew Barrymore poses for a photograph with mum Jaid (Getty Images)Drew has often discussed her drug and alcohol addiction in her younger years.
The mum-of-two previously opened up on how her first taste of alcohol came at the age of just nine. She went on to reveal she began experimenting with drugs a year later, before t urning to harder substances aged 12.
Following her parent's divorce, mum Jaid is even said to have taken a nine-year-old Drew to a club where she would join in partying.
Drew admitted she was "blacklisted" by Hollywood movie studios around the age of 12 and by the age of 13 had been in drug rehabilitation twice.
Spell in a psychiatric unit
Drew Barrymore chatting with Johnny Carson in 1982 (NBCUniversal via Getty Images)Her spell in the psychiatric unit aged 13 has since been called the best thing that ever happened to her. She spent 18 months in the institution.
In an interview with YOU magazine, she said: "My mum put me there because she couldn't cope with me any more but it was the best thing that happened to me.
"It taught me boundaries. Until that point, I had none."
Drew said she wasn't able to leave the institution during her stay. She continued: "I realised, honestly, yeah, my mom locked me up in an institution. Boo hoo! But it did give an amazing discipline.
"It was like serious recruitment training and boot camp, and it was horrible and dark and very long-lived, a year and a half, but I needed it. I needed that whole insane discipline."
Divorcing her parents
Drew is now a mum of two (Getty Images North America)When Drew was 14, she decided to legally divorce her parents.
Drew Barrymore admits she 'felt like a failure' when she first became a mum
Explaining her decision and the reaction in the courtroom when it was finalised, the actress told PEOPLE last year: "I'll never forget the judge saying, 'You never have to go to school again.'"
She has since found a healthy relationship with her mum after admitting she "can't turn my back on her".
Drew revealed she will always support "the woman who gave me life". However, she admitted there are occasions she knows she has to take a break from her mum again and revealed the pair now have "a lot of boundaries".
"And we've taken many pauses in our lives," she told the publication. "Healthy pauses, I'm like, friends need to do it, life-longers need to do it, this is where we're at."
It's not just her mum she learned to forgive as she paid for dad John's hospice care before he died of cancer in 2004.
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