These days, Drew Barrymore usually goes viral for her superhumanly empathetic interviews on her talk show. But after tabloids published headlines claiming the former child star wished her mother dead, Barrymore's viral response video was more Firestarter than Ever After.
Like many child stars, Barrymore had a famously difficult relationship with her mother, from whom she was legally emancipated at age 14. In a June 5 interview with New York Magazine, the actor spoke candidly about how her peers have had an easier time moving forward in life after their mothers died. “All their mums are gone, and my mum’s not,” she said. “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 fucking grow in spite of her being on this planet.” Barrymore later added, “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.”
This nuanced quote was translated into tabloid headlines, like the one in Page Six, which read, “Drew Barrymore admits she wishes her mother Jaid was dead: ‘I cannot wait.’” Well, Barrymore has a problem with that.
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“You know what, to all you tabloids out there, you have been fucking with my life since I was 13 years old,” Barrymore tells the camera frankly. “I have never said that I wished 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 that 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 wished my mother was dead. I have never said that. I never would.”
Page Six did write a follow-up article with this clarification. Though, curiously, the article left out the part when Drew Barrymore says the tabloids have been fucking with her life since she was a teenager.
This article was originally published by GLAMOUR US.