Drew Barrymore Reveals the Darkest Days of Her Divorce From Will Kopelman

“Nobody wants to be the one breaking up,” Jennifer Lopez once sang in her hard-hitting single, ‘Starting Over,’ and those words couldn’t be truer for our favorite TV show host, Drew Barrymore.

In her latest interview, she dove deep into her state of mind during her divorce from the father of her two daughters, Will Kopelman.

Drew Barrymore Didn’t Know “What Age To Feel” Amid Her Divorce From Will Kopelman

Nothing’s glamorous about a family breaking up, and Drew Barrymore can tell you firsthand just how disorienting it feels. The actress and TV show host, 49, candidly opened up about her experience surviving a divorce in a cover story for AARP The Magazine’s February/March 2025 issue.

“My dream family was falling apart and I didn’t know how to put one foot in front of the other,” Barrymore recalled of her 2016 divorce. “And I had grown up so fast but now I didn’t know what age to feel—I just knew that my life was heavy, and painful and sad—and I sat in that for a while.

Despite the challenges, she knew she had to buckle up mentally in order to keep being a good mom to their daughters Olive, 12, and Frankie, 10. “Eventually, thank goodness, I lifted myself out of it,” she said. “I had two kids and I had to figure it out.”

At the moment, while Barrymore is studiously single, her daughters have been nudging her to get back out in the dating scene again. “My girls say I should go on dates, but I also know how I felt when men were around when I was little—it didn’t feel safe to me, so I’m probably overcautious from those experiences,” said Barrymore.

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Although Kopelman went on to eventually marry in 2021, the exes maintain a good co-parenting relationship.

“We’ve got an awesome family dynamic that proves that life goes on. Allie is my favorite person. I love her. I love us all being together,” Barrymore previously told PEOPLE in a December 2022 interview. “These kids have an example of one of the parents moving on and rebuilding another life for themselves. I’m like, ‘Oh, I don’t have to do that now? Perfect.'”

Be sure to catch up on everything happening with Drew Barrymore right now. Come back here often for all Drew Barrymore spoilers, news, and updates.

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