Drew Barrymore Says J.Lo Helped Her Feel “Liberated” From the “Shame” of Divorce

It's time to re-think everything about divorce — at least according to Drew Barrymore. Yesterday, the actress and talk show host reclaimed the narrative around her three divorces, saying that she's no longer going to be ashamed of it and won't be wasting any more of her time worrying about what people think about her past relationships. Barrymore has been married three times: first to Jeremy Thomas from 1994 to 1995; then to Tom Green from 2001 to 2002; and to Will Kopelman from 2012 to 2016. Barrymore and Kopelman share two daughters, Olive and Frankie.

"I had so much shame around divorce, and for some reason, something happened, and I said, 'I'm no longer willing to feel this way,'" Barrymore explained during a segment on The Drew Barrymore Show on Wednesday. "And it just lifted from me. And I just thought, when you get a divorce, you're saving the precious commodity we have on this planet, which is only our time." 

She finished by saying that the new mindset allowed her to feel "liberated" and focus on her quality of life, something that just about anyone can relate to.

"When you're truly in a situation that isn't functioning the way that optimally it hopes and wishes to be, we accept that, and we improve our quality of life by moving forward. And divorce now to me, I don't have shame around it. I'm, like, totally liberated." 

The topic of divorce came up as Barrymore was discussing Jennifer Lopez's music video for "Can't Get Enough," which shows the star playing a bride going through multiple weddings. Like Barrymore, Lopez has made headlines for her divorces, which involved Ojani Noa, Cris Judd, and Marc Anthony.

"J.Lo, I love you. I really appreciate you bringing empowerment to where most people go to shame," Barrymore said. "We've all been in it, so go, J.Lo."

In 2014, Lopez described divorce as a "failure." 

“There's no pain or failure like going through a divorce,” she said of her relationship with Anthony in Dance Again, her HBO documentary. Like Barrymore, she was less critical of herself a few years later, saying, “You have to do what feels good to you all the time. But at the same time, you learn from the past, you do things better the second time," during a The New York Times profile in 2022.