Drew Barrymore: My therapist quit because I couldn't stop drinking

Actor-producer Drew Barrymore, who has long discussed the fluctuating alcoholism and other substance abuse she began as a child star, says her daytime talk show has been the impetus to curtail her drinking, which became so bad after her 2016 divorce that her therapist quit her since she would not stop.

“He just said, ‘I can’t do this anymore,’ ” Barrymore, 48, told the Los Angeles Times of celebrity psychoanalyst Barry Michels. “It was really about my drinking. I said, ‘I get it. I’ve never respected you more. You see I’m not getting better. And I hope, one day, that I can earn your trust back.’” She eventually did so, two years later, and he welcomed her return to therapy.

Barrymore has previously spoken about uprooting herself from California to New York to be near the family of her third husband, art consultant Will Kopelman, only to find herself divorcing him after four years and two children, daughters Olive, 10, and Frankie, 8. The star told People magazine in December that after recovering from alcohol addiction years earlier, she succumbed again: "It was just trying to numb the pain and feel good — and alcohol totally did that for me."

Her friends were as concerned as her therapist. “We were like, ‘You’ve gotta snap out of it,’ ” Chris Miller, who worked at Barrymore’s production company for 24 years before becoming showrunner of “The Tonight Show” last March, told the L.A. Times. “‘We fully understand that this is a total ... [trauma] for you. But you’ve got two healthy kids, a fantastic career and incredible friends.’ And sometimes you have to be reminded of that.”

Actor Cameron Diaz, a friend for decades and her co-star in two "Charlie's Angels" movies (2000, 2003), said that if Barrymore's circle "stuck with her and gave her the support she needed, she would find her way," adding, “I have absolute faith in her. You can’t even comprehend how hard it was to be her as a child, and then she shot out the other end with the ability to save herself.”

Barrymore said the opportunity to host her syndicated talk show, which premiered in 2020, "really hit me" in terms of sobering up and taking responsibility. "I was like, ‘I can’t handle this unless I’m in a really clear place.’ ”

The actor, whose lineage includes the celebrated actors Lionel, Ethel and John Barrymore, most recently starred in the 2017-19 Netflix horror-comedy "Santa Clarita Diet" and the 2020 film "The Stand In."