WHY DREW NEEDED REHAB

THE STAR REVEALS SHE’S FINALLY FORGIVEN HER MUM AFTER BEING FORCED INTO REHAB AT 13

She became a star at the tender age of 7, thanks to her role as the adorable Gertie in ET the Extra-Terrestrial. And while it sounds like a dream come true, her experience with childhood stardom lead Drew Barrymore into a long and harrowing battle with drug and alcohol addiction.

Born into an acting dynasty on her father John Barrymore’s side, Drew was first put to work in a dog food commercial at 11 months. By the age of 7, she was the family’s breadwinner and pouring Baileys over her ice cream. Her mother Jaid started taking her clubbing to Studio 54 in New York City when she was 9.

And Drew, now 46, admits a lot of her issues stemmed from the lack of parental supervision from Jaid, now 74, who was her sole parent. “I had a mum, but she was more like my best friend,” she told Norm MacDonald on his Netflix chat show in 2018. “She was like, ‘Do you want to go to school and get bullied all day, or do you want to go to Studio 54?’ And I was like, ‘Yes, absolutely! I don’t want to spend the day with these little f--kers who are just awful.’ Kids are so mean.”

Drew now admits that by the time she was a teen, she was so “out of control” that even Jaid couldn’t ignore it – and she was forced to admit her into a rehab facility. But this was no quick trip, with the Charlie’s Angels star recently revealing she underwent in-house treatment for 18 months when she was just 13.

“I was in a place for a year and a half called Van Nuys Psychiatric,” she confessed to Howard Stern on February 22. “And you couldn’t mess around in there and if you did, you would get thrown either in a padded room or get put in stretcher restraints and tied up,” she explained. “I was going to clubs and not going to school and stealing my mum’s car and, you know, I was out of control.”

As soon as she got out, Drew started the process of becoming legally emancipated from her parents and moved into her own apartment. But after decades of blaming Jaid for having her locked up, Drew – who is now a parent to two daughters, Olive, 8, and Frankie, 6 – understands her mother’s reasoning. “I think after 30 years of therapy and having kids myself, you know, I think she created a monster,” Drew reflected. “And she didn’t know what to do with the monster. She felt like she had nowhere to turn.”

After decades of not talking, Drew reconciled with Jaid in 2017. “I’m glad there is healing there. I feel goodness toward my mum,” she said.

Drew was a regular on the Hollywood party circuit in her teens. The star is “proud” to have now reconciled with her mum.

MUM FIRST Drew’s experience has helped her become a better parent to her daughters, whom she shares with ex Will Kopelman. “I’ll never be your friend. I’m your mother first,” she told Olive.