Cameron Diaz has said she had “absolute faith” in pal Drew Barrymore overcoming her alcohol issues following her divorce from Will Kopelman in 2016.
The pair have been close friends since their teens and later starred opposite each other in the Charlie Angels films alongside Lucy Liu in the early noughties.
The 50-year-old explained how she gave Barrymore, 48, the “support she needed” after she spiralled into depression and leaned on alcohol as her four-year marriage collapsed.
In a bid to help the star overcome her troubles, friends of the TV talk show host staged a “quasi-intervention”.
Speaking to the LA Times in a profile of her friend, Diaz said: “I knew that if we all stuck with her and gave her the support she needed, she would find her way.
“I have absolute faith in her. You can’t even comprehend how hard it was to be her as a child, and then she shot out the other end with the ability to save herself.”
Barrymore has been candid about her struggles with alcohol and substance abuse as a youngster after finding fame on ET when she was just seven years-old.
The 50 First Dates actress previously revealed she tried her first drink at the age of nine, smoked marijuana at 10 and used cocaine at 12.
In the same interview, Barrymore explained that her issues with alcohol got so bad that her therapist ended their relationship after working with each other for a decade.
Barrymore recalled to the outlet: “He just said, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ It was really about my drinking. I said, ‘I get it. I’ve never respected you more. You see I’m not getting better. And I hope, one day, that I can earn your trust back.’ "
The Never Been Kissed actress added that it was only when she was offered her daytime talk show, The Drew Barrymore Show, in 2019 that she wanted to be “in a really clear place.”
In a bid to find that “clear place”, she reached out to her therapist two years after he quit, and he decided to work with her again now that she was finally capable of change.
The star also admitted she’s experimented with different levels of sobriety over the years and does not describe herself as sober now.
Despite her struggles, she is now focused on being a mother to daughters Olive, 10, and Frankie, 8, which she calls “the role of my life”.
