Drew Barrymore is open to her kids about her 'wild days': 'We just need to celebrate our histories'

Drew Barrymore is opening up about the trials and tribulations of her star-studded career with her children. Mother of two daughters, 10-year-old Olive and 9-year-old Frankie, Barrymore said she talks to them about all her "wild days." While many people or parents feel uncomfortable talking about their past experiences with their friends and kids, Barrymore thinks it is vital to share the ups and downs of your life with your children. "I have to talk to my kids about all my wild days," Barrymore said, reports Good Morning America. "Now I'm like, 'Oh, I knew this was all going to come up at some point.'"

"I love talking to other people who didn't know they were going to be moms at those points, too," the "50 First Dates" star explained. "Life is such an interesting journey full of so many chapters. But the only thing I want to do is not feel awkward about any of those chapters because there were already enough awkward feelings going through them. I don't want to feel awkward looking back on them."

She added, "I think we just need to celebrate our histories and be excited about all the things it took for us to become whoever it is we are today if you're happy with that person."

The "Charlies Angels" actress isn't oblivious to the fact that she was the nation's crush for the longest time. "I've been in mom mode for almost 11 years now -- 12 if you count the pregnancy when it just everything changes. So, yeah, for the last 12 years, I haven't thought of myself in any sexy terms, so I'll take it!" she said, laughing. "I'm single! I'm glad I had a libidinous situation at one point in my life, great!"

When fans meet her, some do not shy away from admitting to her that she was their crush. "I'm always like, 'Thanks, I'm thrilled you saw me that way, at some point,'" Barrymore shared. The 46-year-old former child actress was seven years old, the same age as her youngest daughter Frankie in 2021, when she rose to international fame after Steven Spielberg's 1982 film "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial."

While speaking to the  "American Pie" star Jason Biggs on "The Drew Barrymore Show," Barrymore said she underwent mental health treatment and rehab for alcohol and drug addiction at 13 and was legally emancipated from her parents the following year. "I have become this mother that is ironically very chaste, very pillars-of-appropriateness," Barrymore told fellow parent Biggs in 2021, reports E! News.

"I tell my daughters all the time, I'm like, 'The truth is, you're going to find out that I wasn't always like that and you're gonna be confused," Barrymore added. "But what I need you to remember when you see pictures of me or my wild stuff, a lot of times we think of it in terms of like, art and expression, and you know, I loved fashion and photography and we made movies where we did, you know, either a scene or two."

Before starring in lighthearted rom-coms such as "The Wedding Singer" and 'Blended", Barrymore acted in the erotic thriller "Poison Ivy," released in 1992. Three years later, the star posed nude for "Playboy," which earned criticisms from Spielberg, and flashed her breasts to David Letterman on "The Late Show."

"I tell my girls," Barrymore said. "I'm like, 'Here's the deal'—I go with humor—'You are going to see so many mixed messages. You are going to be like, 'But Mom, look at what you did! Because that's the other thing—you don't know you're going to be a parent one day when you're figuring it all out. None of us are like, 'Well, you know, one day, this is going to be catalog.'"