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Drew Barrymore is still reeling from her divorce.
The talk show host, 49, got candid about the end of her four-year marriage to Will Kopelman, revealing she’s deeply affected by their split.
Barrymore and Kopelman, 46, started dating in 2011 and said “I do” one year later. The exes share two children: daughters Olive, 12, and Frankie, 10.
During Friday’s episode of “The Drew Barrymore Show,” the “Charlie’s Angels” actress spoke about their fallout.
“I think, for me, when I got divorced from my kids’ dad, I don’t think I have fully recovered from that in the sense of I just…” she shared with her guests Joy Behar and Susie Essman. “I was so invested in that plan.”
Essman, 69, noted that having children together “really changes things,” with Behar, 82, interjecting, “Well you never get rid of them, once you have a kid.”
Barrymore agreed. “We’re stuck together for life,” she stated, adding that they’ve “grown a lot through the last 14 years of our union with our kids.”
Behar continued the conversation by discussing how divorce proceedings can weigh heavily on someone. “The View” host married her first husband, director Joseph Behar, in 1965. They divorced in 1981, and he died in 2021 at the age of 94.
“I don’t recommend divorce, it’s really… it’s a drag,” Behar said, to which Barrymore replied, “Yeah, it destroyed me.”
The duo enticed Barrymore to list qualities to look for in her next relationship.
“It’s all reasonable stuff you’re asking for,” Essman, who married Jim Harder in 2008, remarked as they named the basics like being kind and having a job and a good sense of humor.
Behar and Essman also urged her to stay away from movie or television stars.
“As a public persona, as a famous person, a celebrity… you need a secure guy,” Essman told Barrymore. “That’s something you’re gonna really need, because you’re gonna get attention, and people are gonna recognize you, and you need a guy who’s really secure.”
Behar added that Barrymore needs a significant other who “doesn’t compete with you.”
“No actors — forget about it,” Behar emphasized.
She also encouraged the “50 First Dates” actress to date someone with a normal job.
“You need a civilian. You need a doctor, a lawyer, somebody like [Essman’s] husband, a construction… a builder, like that. You need that. A teacher like I got,” Behar, who married teacher Steve Janowitz in 2011, shared, adding Barrymore can “call me anytime” if she needs romance advice.
Barrymore, who said she was celibate for years after their divorce, swore off getting married again in a 2020 interview with People.
“Never. Never, never, never. I will never get married again!” she told the outlet. “And I also believe people should not say the word ‘never,’ and I will never, with a capital N-E-V-E-R, never get married.”
Her divorce from Kopelman wasn’t her only one.
Barrymore was previously married to Jeremy Thomas from 1994 to 1995. She famously wed comedian Tom Green in 2001 and divorced in 2002.
Barrymore’s most recent ex-husband remarried in 2021.