Drew Barrymore is the latest celebrity to have her words taken out of context and be shared across the corners of the internet.
In a recent interview, Barrymore said she would have no trouble abstaining from sex for six months in response to a conversation about a male actor going celibate for the same period of time in preparation for an upcoming role. Later that week, Barrymore says she walked into a workout class to have someone exclaim, “you look just like Drew Barrymore except for you look like you have mental wellness and besides …she hates sex!”
Barrymore later realized the comments she’d made about intimacy had made their rounds on the internet and social media with the main TL;DR of it, that she doesn’t care about sex — hates it, in fact. Now, in a candid new blog post, Barrymore explained her position, writing about the breakdown of her marriage — she split from her ex-husband and father of her two children, Will Kopelman, in 2016 — and her subsequent journey toward coming back to herself afterwards.
“At nearly 48, I have very different feelings about intimacy than I did growing up,” Barrymore wrote. “I did not have role model parents and I engaged with people in grown up ways since a tender age! I was looking for companionship! Validation! Excitement! Pleasure! Hedonism! Fun! And adventures!!”
“Now, because I can’t get in the time machine and change my history, so I now choose to look at it through a positive lens, which is that I have lived! I lived a very rich, full life. However, after two kids and a separation from their father that has made me cautious, I have had the pleasure of shifting my focus when it comes to love for myself and my two daughters,” she continued.
Barrymore added, “I know that does not include a man nor has it for a while. I’ve come to realize through working in therapy (with Barry [Barrymore’s therapist]), he said something and I had to write it down. He said, “Sex is not love! It is the expression of love.” I have searched my whole life to have words like that to help me understand the difference and now, thanks to him, I do.”
Barrymore went on to say that since she’s been a single mom, she’s had the “honor” and “pleasure” of working on herself and learning what parenting is, adding that a romantic relationship simply “a priority.” Raising her daughters to be “empowered” and to “love themselves” has been, with Barrymore adding, “I actually really appreciated what Billie Eilish talked about on The Howard Stern Show about how young girls should filter the images and messages of what the current state of sex is in this modern world.”
She concluded by writing, “So for the record, I do not hate sex! I have just finally come to the epiphany that love and sex are simply not the same thing.” (Grazia magazine)