Drew Barrymore occupies an important space in pop culture. The actress, producer and director has made some of the world’s most memorable films. In 2020, she launched her first day time show “The Drew Barrymore Show”, which has only grown in popularity with the passing of the years. The program has become a safe haven following her divorce with Will Kopelman.

In an interview with People, Barrymore talked about her divorce from Kopelman and what went wrong in the relationship. “There was no scandal. Nothing went wrong, which is cleaner, but makes it harder and more confusing because there isn’t The Thing to point to,” she said. We tried so hard to make it work. [A friend] said to me, ‘Divorce is the death of a dream.’ That’s exactly what it feels like, something so final you can’t get it back.“

While Barrymore divorced in 2016, she said that the years following the break were “cripplingly difficult.” “It just took me down. There are times where you can look at someone you think is a strong person and see them so broken and go, ‘How the f--- did they get there?’ And I was that person. I broke,” she said.

Barrymore said she turned to alcohol to feel better, something that she realized that, as an addict, wasn’t the right thing to do. “After the life I planned for my kids didn’t work out — I almost think that was harder than the stuff [I went through] as a kid. It felt a lot more real because it wasn’t just me. It was about these kids that I cared so much about. And then I probably cared so much that I was only giving to them and not taking care of myself. It was a messy, painful, excruciating walk through the fire and come back to life kind of trajectory,” she said.

Despite the many hurdles she’s faced over the past years, Barrymore calls this decade “the best” of her life. “It wasn’t just the most awesome, it was the one where I feel like I’ve slayed more dragons than I ever have in my whole life.”