Drew Barrymore Fires Back at Tabloids: 'Never Said That I Wish My Mother Was Dead'
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Drew Barrymore added more context to comments she made in a recent viral New York Magazine profile about her mother, Ildiko Jaid Barrymore, and called out tabloids for twisting her words.
During the New York interview, Barrymore overheard the distant sounds of neighbors and said the following:
“All their moms are gone, and my mom’s not. And I’m like, Well, I don’t have that luxury. But I cannot wait. 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.”
Later in the interview, Barrymore circled back to her previous comment and said, “I dared to say it, and I didn’t feel good. 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.”
Barrymore clarified her comments in a video posted to Instagram, calling out tabloid coverage of the quotes:
“I have never said that I wish my mother was dead. 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. 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 has a complicated history with her mother, Jaid. Estranged from her husband and Drew’s father, John Drew Barrymore, Jaid began taking a young Drew to auditions when she was just an infant.
At the age of seven, Barrymore landed one of her most famous roles: Gertie, the adorable little sister in the blockbuster E.T.: The Extraterrestrial (1982). The role pushed Barrymore into the spotlight.
Jaid, according to New York, treated Barrymore like a “friend and client” more than a daughter:
They would go to industry parties, nightclubs, Studio 54, Limelight. She dated Drew’s boyfriends; after Barrymore posed nude for Playboy in 1995, Jaid followed suit later that year as “Drew’s Sexy Mom.” With no one to say no, Drew was uninhibited.
At age 13, Barrymore had developed a pre-teen fondness of drugs and alcohol, and she became violent when she was unable to throw Jaid out of the house. Jaid forced Barrymore into rehab, and she was in and out of treatment for the next year and a half, occasionally leaving to continue her acting career. From New York:
When [Barrymore] got out [of rehab], she lived with David Crosby and his wife, Jan Dance. Drew emancipated herself from her mother soon after, at which point she became an adult in the eyes of the state.
Barrymore recounted her troubled teen years and relationship with her mother in her 1990 autobiography, Little Girl Lost.
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