Drew Barrymore Recalls Text She Sent To Her Estranged Mother—And What She Sent Back

Drew Barrymore’s career began at the very young age of 7 years old when she gained widespread recognition for her role as Gertie in Steven Spielberg’s science fiction film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. The film’s success propelled her into the limelight and established her as one of Hollywood’s most promising child actors.

However, her early success was accompanied by personal struggles as she had a turbulent childhood and adolescence, marked by her parent’s divorce, her mother’s alcoholism, and her own experimentation with drugs and alcohol. These issues eventually led to Barrymore’s estrangement from her parents at the young age of 14.

Drew Barrymore speaks about her relationship with her mother

In a recent interview, the 48-year-old opened up about her legal separation from her parents during her teenage years. The actress also shared how her relationship with her mother, Jaid Barrymore, has evolved over time, revealing that she recently reached out to her mother via text to wish her a happy birthday.

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“I texted my mom for her birthday, and she told me she loved me and she was proud of me. I don’t care how old you get or how big your mission is when your mom tells you she loves you,” Barrymore wrote. “You revert back to small. And the fact that she loves me with my truth and my honesty is the best time I have ever heard her say it.”

Barrymore took to her blog to write an extensive post in celebration of Mother’s Day a few days after writing the text. In the post, she revealed that despite the tumultuous history between them, she maintained communication with her 77-year-old mother. “I texted her. It simply read ‘Happy birthday, Mom.’ and she wrote back, ‘Thank you so much! I’m incredibly proud of you and send you love,'” she wrote. “It was the biggest gift I could have ever received. To know that she is proud of me.”

She earlier discussed her childhood experiences

The actress previously openly discussed her challenging childhood, where her father, actor John Drew Barrymore, was largely absent from her life. However, in her Mother’s Day blog post, she explained that the situation in her home led to the legal separation from her parent. “When I got emancipated by the courts at 14 years old, the umbilical cord was severed, and I have not been the same since,” the 48-year-old said. “It was necessary for me to step away and start to become my own person. And at the age of 14, my own parent.”

The talkshow host also shared her struggles with addiction and revealed how being held at a mental health facility led to the estrangement between her and her mother. “It was a drug rehabilitation center, where — like the adults in residence, once you came in you did not leave. It taught me the foundations of telling your truth. Not in a way that made you an immovable person on some high horse, but your story. Your feelings. Your faults. Your hopes and wishes. Your hurts. What and where you wanted to get to in life,” she wrote on her blog. “And — very important — who was going to help you on your path and who would you have to let go. For me, at the end and when I got out, it was my mother.”