Celebrity
Drew Barrymore's "very lonely" early years in Hollywood made her realize the type of life and home she didn't want to create as an adult.
Published on August 18, 2022
2 min readDrew Barrymore took fans with her to visit her childhood home on her talk show. And she shared some of the “very lonely” memories that seeing it brought back. Why did the house feel so empty to her when she lived there? And how is the home she created with her family different?
Drew Barrymore had a privileged but sad childhood
Barrymore seems like she was born for the spotlight, coming from a long line of actors. She found fame as a performer early in life, and her childhood was anything but typical.
As little sister Gertie in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Barrymore captivated a large-scale audience. And she enjoyed some of the perks of being treated like a famous Hollywood star, despite her tender age. She had such a successful start that she visited an adoring Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show at 7.
But Barrymore was soon skipping school to party. Notably, she said her mom was the one who suggested she go to clubs and took her there. Her reputation suffered, and she was blacklisted from Hollywood as a child.
As a young teenager, Barrymore was institutionalized for more than a year. And she was emancipated at 14 upon her release. She told Norm McDonald on Norm Macdonald Has a Show (via TODAY), “I got my s*** over with at, like, 14. Like, midlife crisis, institutionalized, blacklisted, no family, like, got it done, and then got into the cycle of being my own parent, figuring it out.”
Drew Barrymore said she was ‘so lonely’ in her childhood home
Barrymore visited the outside of one of her childhood homes in Los Angeles on The Drew Barrymore Show, and seeing it brought back sad memories. She explained, “I was so lonely in this house. It was just me and my mom, and it was just a really sad energy. It was very empty and very lonely.”
She said she lived there with her mother from the time she was born until she was 7, and she recalled feeling so alone. But she also added, “I don’t have to be lonely anymore.”
Though the house carries sad memories for her, Barrymore wanted a closer look. While standing outside, she spotted the home’s owner and asked if she could walk around the yard without cameras for old time’s sake, to which they agreed.
Drew Barrymore compared her home to Grand Central Station
Since Barrymore’s childhood home felt so lonely to her, she said the house she now shares with her two daughters is like Grand Central Station. “I grew up and got in charge of my own destiny,” she shared.
“There’s so much life and … so many people. And this place just taught me that I wasn’t the kind of person who wanted to live in a quiet, lonely place,” she went on about her childhood home. She concluded, “I wanted to live a life where I was around a lot of people.”
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