The Reason Drew Barrymore Will Never Get Married Again
Actress, entrepreneur, and talk show host Drew Barrymore is no stranger to love. Aside from her on-screen roles in rom-coms like 50 First Dates, Music & Lyrics, The Wedding Singer, and He's Just Not That Into You, Barrymore's off-screen relationship ups and downs have been the center of attention.
"I am a hopeless romantic, and everybody on this planet needs love in some form," Barrymore said in an interview with People in September 2020. The actress has been married three times, first to a bar owner named Jeremy Thomas in 1994. The marriage lasted 10 months. Her second marriage was to Canadian comedian and actor Tom Green in 2001, and her last marriage was to actor Will Kopelman in 2012. After almost four years of marriage, the couple separated in 2016. Kopelman and Barrymore share two daughters together, Frankie and Olive.
While speaking to People about her talk show, Barrymore shared how much she loves talking about love. "We are constantly contending with relationships. Love and those relationships may look differently for people. But it's there at its core. So, I can't help but want to explore and examine that," said the actress.
So, why has she ruled out any future marriages?
Drew Barrymore doesn't want to be like Elizabeth Taylor
Hollywood relationships are sometimes better than the movies. We've followed cheating rumors, on-set scandals, and great love stories of our favorite celebrities time and time (and sometimes one more time) again. For Charlie's Angels actress Drew Barrymore, her own marriage stories may have come to halt.
"Never. Never, never, never. I will never get married again!" said Barrymore in her interview with People. "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."
The actress continued that the reason behind her swearing off marriage is that the concept is dated. "It's like I have two options: Cut it—this has not worked—or be Elizabeth Taylor. And I have too many more to go," Barrymore explained. "I never want to be entwined with someone like that again ever. You break up, and you move on. You get divorced, and it's just so different. I love that we are trying to hold on to an institution that [started] when the closest person to you for companionship was a three-day horse ride away and your life span was 30 years."
For the record, Elizabeth Taylor was married eight times to seven different husbands.
Drew Barrymore is still dating, though
Despite swearing off marriage, E.T. actress Drew Barrymore has not sworn off love just yet. The star revealed to People that she's even tried online dating (and apparently even celebrities get ghosted). "I went on a couple of dates. A lot of people totally ghosted me," Barrymore said. "And one time I was waiting to go on a date, and at the time we were supposed to meet he just wrote, 'Yeah, I can't.' But I'd rather hang out with my friends."
The star shared that her time for love without marriage will come after her two daughters, Frankie and Olive, leave the nest. "It doesn't mean that maybe I wouldn't like to meet someone, especially when my kids go off to college," Barrymore said to the magazine. "Or a year from now, I could be totally in love. I'm open to it; I'm not seeking it. My cup runneth over. I have so much love in my life."
Drew Barrymore's divorce was her 'biggest failure'
Drew Barrymore's last marriage to actor Will Kopelman ended in 2016, a divorce that Barrymore has said in the past made her feel like the "biggest failure." "When you break up with somebody, you're like, 'Yeah that didn't work.' When you get divorced, you're like, 'I'm the biggest failure.' It's so shameful and hard to actually go through that, even privately," said Barrymore in an appearance on Chelsea Handler's Netflix show in 2017 (via Marie Claire).
In an interview with Marie Claire's editor Nicky Briger in August 2019, the actress revisited her feelings sharing she was "really broken." "Divorce is the death of a dream. I lost 40 pounds [18 kilograms] of weight," Barrymore said. At the time of her divorce to Kopelman, the couple released a statement which mentioned that "divorce might make one feel like a failure, but eventually you start to find grace in the idea that life goes on."
Life has gone on for the actress, with Barrymore debuting her new talk show in September 2020.