The Untold Truth Of Drew Barrymore's Two Daughters
Drew Barrymore has expanded her career to much more than just acting. Having worked in the industry since she was a kid, she has published books, owns her own production company, created a beauty brand and kitchenware line, and is the host of her very own talk show. However, no other role has given Barrymore a sense of constant joy than becoming a mother.
The actor first became a mom when she welcomed her daughter, Olive, in September 2012 with her then-husband, Will Kopelman. The former couple welcomed a second daughter, Frankie, in April 2014 before separating two years later. Barrymore decided to step away from her film career for a bit in order to fully embrace motherhood. "It was a no-brainer to me to put making movies on a back burner, so that I could be present and raise my kids myself," she explained on "Radio Andy" in 2021. "I didn't want to be on a film set asking the nanny how the kids were. I was like, that is not my journey."
Barrymore eventually returned to work, expanding her personal brand and debuting "The Drew Barrymore Show " in 2020. Still, she has remained a proud mother to her two daughters. Although we don't see much of Olive or Frankie on Barrymore's social media accounts, the actor has shared tidbits about her young kids here and there.
Drew Barrymore tried to keep her first pregnancy private
Drew Barrymore married her then-husband, art consultant Will Kopelman, in June 2012 after dating for a little over a year. In their wedding photos, the couple smiles happily with Kopelman's hands on her belly, confirming that the actor was pregnant with their first child.
However, rumors that Barrymore was pregnant began way before the couple publicly confirmed their baby news. Initially, the "50 First Dates" actor wanted to keep it a secret. In a 2022 interview on "The Drew Barrymore Show," she reflected on how devastating it was when her pregnancy was leaked by the paparazzi. "I was walking out of my OB/GYN, and I had just found out I was pregnant," she shared. "I walked out of her office, and someone I work with, Chris Miller, got all these calls, 'We know she's pregnant. We're breaking the story.'" Although Barrymore didn't believe the calls, she was photographed walking out of her doctor's appointment with her sonogram in her hand. "I was depressed or saddened, kind of, that I didn't get to have that be a private thing, a moment, or just to wrap my head around it," she added.
Instead of trying to cover up her second pregnancy in 2016, Barrymore decided to announce it so that the media wouldn't constantly pressure her. "Last time, I never commented on it, and people just stalked me the entire time," she told People.
Her daughters are shielded from the public
Drew Barrymore has chosen to keep her two daughters out of the public eye. You won't often see photos of them on her Instagram, and fans won't see them tagging along with their mom at every red carpet event. It's an entirely different lifestyle compared to Barrymore, who was propelled into the spotlight as a child.
Speaking to People about shielding daughters Olive and Frankie Kopelman from the media, Barrymore explained, "My life with my children, my feelings, that's all on the table — but [Olive and Frankie themselves] are not. Because of my life experiences, I'm not selling my brand on my kids. I won't do it. But to ignore that part of my life would make me an automaton. So it's really inventive to figure out how to bring them into the omelet and fold it in, in a way that feels appropriate for me."
While Barrymore has to be more careful due to the public and paparazzi's fascination with her, the girls' father, Will Kopelman, likes to sometimes upload family photos of the two to his Instagram. He has shared pictures of him and his daughters vacationing on Nantucket Island in Massachusetts and taking selfies with dad.
They both have unique nicknames
Celebrities are known for giving their kids unique names, which is no different with Drew Barrymore. During a 2012 appearance on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" (via USA Today), the actor shared how her first daughter, Olive, got her name. "I was reading a book with my husband," she recalled. "I was three months pregnant, and they said your baby is the size of an olive, and that was it. We never looked back."
As for her second daughter, Frankie, Barrymore and Will Kopelman almost chose the name Pepper, but soon changed their minds. "Olive and Pepper. Like that's two things you find in a pantry," she joked when she returned to "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" (via Los Angeles Times). In the end, Frankie just fit with the former couple. "It was just a name that came to my husband and I a few months before she was born, and we were sort of like, 'I think this is it.'"
As her kids have grown up, Barrymore has adopted fitting nicknames for them. In a 2023 interview with the "People Every Day" podcast where Barrymore was speaking about empowering her kids, she shared, "My daughter Olive, her nickname is Bear, and I say, 'Get that salmon, Bear. You get that salmon!' And Frankie is Mousey. And I go, 'You get that cheese, Mousey, you get that cheese!'"
Barrymore is happy they have a stepmom
In August 2021, Will Kopelman remarried to Alexandra Michler – Vogue's director of fashion initiatives — meaning Kopelman and Drew Barrymore's two daughters welcomed a stepmother. Speaking on Dax Shepherd's "Armchair Expert" just a week after the couple tied the knot, Barrymore gushed about Michler, "I just feel like I won the lottery with her, like, I really did ... I feel like I'm lucky that there's this new beautiful soul that came into our lives."
For Barrymore, her co-parenting relationship with her ex and his new wife has been positive. In an episode of "The Drew Barrymore Show," the host shared, "Although we might not be married anymore, and he's even married with his beautiful new wife, Allie, our wonderful stepmother, we're in a daily engagement and our relationship has never been better."
The three parental figures are so close that they all went trick-or-treating together as a family in 2021. Barrymore shared this tidbit during a segment of her show while talking about Jennifer Garner, who also went trick-or-treating with her kids, ex-husband Ben Affleck, and his wife, Jennifer Lopez. "I think, honestly, this is so ideal. It is the dream. And I love seeing this; I really do. It's very positive," she said.
Olive and Frankie became big sisters
In June 2023, Will Kopelman and his wife, Alexandra Michler, welcomed a son named John Keats Kopelman. The father of three shared the happy news on Instagram, and in his caption, he shared the meaning of their son's middle name. "Keats, Allie's middle name, and long-standing family name dating back to poet John Keats," he wrote. Michler shared in her own post, "Feeling overwhelmed by joy and excitement. We love you to pieces John!!!"
With the birth of John, Will and Drew Barrymore's two daughters were now big sisters to their stepbrother. When Michler was still pregnant, Will shared a photo on Instagram of the day he told both of his daughters that they were having another sibling. "I'll never forget this moment, captured a minute after we told the girls. We all can't wait to meet this little guy," he captioned the photo, which showed Olive and Frankie hugging Michler's belly.
Barrymore isn't raising her daughters to become child stars
Drew Barrymore hails from a family of actors that dates all the way back to the late 1800s. However, she may be breaking that family tradition regarding her own children. Since welcoming Olive and Frankie Kopelman into the world, Barrymore has made it known that she isn't going to push them into the industry. "I'm not going to let them be kid actors," she told People. "That's so not their journey."
A normal, everyday lifestyle is what the former child actor wants for her daughters. For Today's "Why I Love My" series, Barrymore shared that she was "obsessed" with making sure her children wouldn't fall into the trap that those who are young in Hollywood often do because of her personal experiences. "I almost thought that acting was some calling from the devil. I was thinking, 'My daughters will never be actors! God, no!'" Nevertheless, she does understand that the Barrymore name is important, stating that she hopes her kids wait until they are older to make their career choices. "I'm a Barrymore. My family has been doing this for hundreds and hundreds of years, and multiple generations."
Olive and Frankie must follow a few rules
Drew Barrymore had a notoriously troubled childhood, but she has made sure that her two daughters don't experience anything close to what their mother had endured. That means the actor has input rules in her household that her children must follow.
In an interview with Better Homes & Gardens, "The Wedding Singer" actor has a strict rule regarding the usage of electronics. "But when it comes to my kids, I'm not a huge fan of personal electronics like iPads," she explained. "During the pandemic, when schools were virtual, we were forced into all being on our separate devices, and I didn't like it. Now, I keep the iPads in a locked safe, and they only come out for special occasions. I'd rather that the three of us all pile into my bed and watch together."
Barrymore has also made sure to raise her children differently than her mother, Jaid Barrymore, had. As a child, Drew often accompanied her mom to clubs and parties, sharing that their relationship was more like friends than mother and daughter. Speaking to Demi Lovato in 2021 on her "4D with Demi Lovato" podcast, Barrymore touched on how she needed to "completely relearn what parent-child dynamic is" with her children. "Like, I'm your parent, I'm not your friend. You can be friendly and do activities; it's not that it has to be this strict relationship."
They only like a few of their mom's films
With an expansive filmography like hers, Drew Barrymore shared that her children have discovered their famous mother's movies all on their own. In a 2023 interview with People, the actor recounted how daughters Olive and Frankie created a name for those films, adorably calling them "mom movies." "They know how to navigate iTunes, and then they would watch them, and if they really like them, as all kids do, they watch it over and over, and then they move on to the next thing," Barrymore noted. "I'm happy I just let them discover it on their own. I don't want to force them into it."
Barrymore's kids have favorites, including the 1998 film "Ever After" and 2004's "50 First Dates." While appearing as a guest on "Good Morning America," Barrymore may have surprised some movie fanatics when she revealed that her daughters weren't really into one of her most beloved films, "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial." "Olive hasn't really gravitated towards it as much as I would have thought so far, but I think she'll get back into it," the actor posited.
Olive is extremely creative
Drew Barrymore's daughters developed the famous Barrymore family traits at a young age. In 2017, when the actor's eldest daughter, Olive, was just 4-years-old, Barrymore shared that she already found her own unique fashion style. "Sometimes it's crazy combinations, and sometimes it's girly-girl. I think she gets that from me and her dad. Her dad's much more into [her] looking like a little girl, and I'm a total tomboy," Barrymore told People (via Hola!).
Olive's passion for fashion has grown into fashion design as she has gotten older. Speaking with People in 2022 for the Harper's Bazaar Icons party, the actor compared Olive to socialite and model Edie Beale. "She constructs amazing things and is really, has great ingenuity when it comes to like tailoring clothes," she added. "And I have two forms, that I just have that buckets and baskets and fabrics and then they can just make dresses on the forms."
On Instagram, Olive's father, Will Kopelman, showcased Olive's fashion creativity. Photos showed Olive visiting a clothing designer, where she showed off her many sketches in hopes of creating her own flower girl dress for her father's wedding. "My daughter has seen the Cruella movie five times now, and so armed with her usual unwavering determination, has set out to 'design' her own flower girl dress," he wrote. "And pretty much everyone else's for that matter."
Frankie is Barrymore's look-a-like
Of course, both of Drew Barrymore's daughters have similarities to their mom regarding their appearances. But people could not stop talking about how Barrymore's youngest daughter, Frankie, closely resembles her mother when she was cast to play Gertie in 1982's "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial."
Fans rarely see Barrymore take her children on a red carpet, so it was a special moment for mother and daughter when they attended the 2017 Society of Memorial Sloan Kettering's Bunny Hop. Barrymore and Frankie, who was nearly 3-years-old, posed on the carpet for the first time. Frankie, wearing a pink satin bow in her hair, was highly reminiscent of her mom's character, who wore pigtails tied with pink ribbon in the sci-fi movie.
Barrymore's look-a-like daughter can also be seen on Will Kopelman's Instagram page. Celebrating Frankie's 9th birthday in 2023, Will Kopelman shared photos of a family tradition that involves his daughter standing under a cherry blossom tree for every birthday. "Every year on her birthday, we take pictures with the cherry blossoms. Love you to the moon and back Frankie, HBD! They bloom for you kid," he wrote.