After more than 40 years in Hollywood, Drew Barrymore surely has some regrets.
in “Highly vulnerable” messages In an Instagram post on Friday, the actress and talk show host reflected on her years in the spotlight, how her tumultuous childhood has influenced the way she parents today and what regrets she still has about her 1995 Playboy photoshoot.
“I have seen many hedonistic scenes of a very sensitive nature at parties and even in my own home, and watching them has caused me great shame,” Barrymore wrote in a post titled “PHONE HOME.” “We children should not be seeing these images. And yes, when I was younger, because of the environment I was in, I was quite an exhibitionist. I considered it art, and I still don't judge it.”
Drew Barrymore's daughter uses Playboy cover as argument
Drew Barrymore regrets appearing on the cover of Playboy in 1995. (Getty Images)
“But when I had my purely artistic moment in Playboy in my early 20s, I thought it was unlikely I'd ever come back because it was a print magazine,” Barrymore added. “I didn't know there was an Internet. I didn't know much about it.”
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As a mother of two preteen daughters — Olive, 12, and Frankie, 10 — Barrymore said she's focused on protecting her children “the way I wanted to be protected.”
Especially when it comes to the new world of social media.
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“So many times as a child, I wished someone would say, 'No.' I always wanted to rebel, because I didn't have any guardrails. I had so many rights and leeway that it actually became difficult for me to say 'No.'”
“I never dreamed my children would be caught up in the same wave of excessive luxury and access that I was,” she added.
Drew Barrymore (Getty Images/Kevin Mazur Archive/WireImage)
Barrymore went on to explain that she came of age at 14, at which point she moved into her first apartment.
“I rebuilt my life on my own terms, only to realise that no one was going to take care of me like I'd told myself,” she wrote. “My mother was criticised for allowing me to get out of control. I have so much empathy for her now because I'm a mother myself, and nobody is perfect.”
“I was on the cover of the National Enquirer and other magazines as a tragedy that was over… I wanted to disappear off the face of the earth and never show my face again.”
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“Now that I'm a mother, I can't believe I'm in a world where I know my own personal pitfalls correlate with so many of my classmates who got caught up in so much too soon. Children shouldn't be exposed to so much. Children should be protected, and children should hear 'no.'”
Drew Barrymore attends the 2023 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor Awards at the Kennedy Center on March 19, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images)
Barrymore also discussed the harm that can come from group texts.
“We must protect our children from being placed in situations where they are constantly unable to control the rhetoric of multiparty power dynamics that are recorded on cloud nine and may one day come back to haunt them,” she wrote.
“When I was 13, I screwed up in public and everyone was shocked,” she added. “I was on the cover of the National Enquirer and other magazines as a failed tragedy, and I thought that would be my story forever. I wanted to disappear off the face of the earth and never show my face again.”
Drew Barrymore opens up about body image, acting, and life in 7 episodes
“But I took one step at a time and got my life back on track. I made some mistakes along the way, but that's life,” she continued. “People make mistakes, and people have been so kind to me and forgiving and encouraging me to grow.”
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“So it's my mission, my life's work, to inspire people!” Barrymore concluded. “We all fall and get up again and again. Life is a rollercoaster. And what a beautiful ride it is.”
