Drew Barrymore’s lifestyle change was inspired by Simone Biles.
The 48-year-old star found fame as a child actress in the early 1980s – but Drew has decided to reinvent herself in recent years, after previously struggling with drug and alcohol abuse.
Drew – who has Olive, 11, and Frankie, nine, with her ex-husband Will Kopelman – told Us Weekly: “Before starting [‘The Drew Barrymore Show’], I was just a struggling mom trying to let go of the work I knew, which was acting, producing and directing, so that I could be home with my kids.
“I was trying on a lot of things because I knew it wasn’t healthy for me to just psycho-stare at them all day. I wrote a book. I started a beauty brand. I thought that if I had something that challenged me, I would be a better parent. But I still wanted to be a parent that could be home all the time. So, what was that?
“My lifestyle also was something I wanted to change. I didn’t want to drink anymore.
“Before children, I could get away with it, but [after] I felt like, ‘This is too loud and glaring, and I can’t ignore it anymore.’ And divorce didn’t help.”
Simone Biles withdrew from an event at the Tokyo Olympics due to mental health issues, and the gymnast’s decision proved to be a turning point for Drew, too.
The actress – who has hosted ‘The Drew Barrymore Show’ since 2020 – said: “Then when Simone Biles came out and said, ‘I’m not getting on that balance beam’ it hit me so hard that in this world, we sometimes don’t know when to stop running. We don’t think that we can opt out.
“There was something so pivotal about that moment for me. It gave me permission to not [stay in] the old life I had known.”
