Drew Barrymore Comforts An Emotional Divorcee In The Crowd Of Her Show: 'Took Me Years'

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Drew Barrymore is someone who knows a thing or two about divorce — with not one, not two, but three marriages in her proverbial rearview mirror. As a matter of fact, while the "Scream" alum has not outright given up on romance, she has ruled out the possibility of ever tying the knot with anyone again. It's not hard to see why she's made that decision, mind you; navigating through a divorce can turn you off of marriage entirely. While that process has been anything but easy for Barrymore, it has made her especially qualified to lend a sympathetic ear to those experiencing divorce for the first time, and that's exactly what she did for an emotional audience member on a recent edition of her popular talk show. Check it out in the video below.

"Divorce took me years to get over. I know that's probably the worst thing I could tell you," Barrymore said while addressing an audience member who had opened up about getting a divorce after 21 years of marriage. She added, "We beat ourselves up so much. It's like, not only do we put everybody first, but then, everything that went wrong is our fault. Why can't we get over it quicker? It's like, you stay in this stuck state. You get stuck in the weeds, too. It's so hard to rise above and out of it, and get closer to the sun, you know, you stay wallowing in the darkness. So, give yourself time." It was an emotional moment of connection between not just the woman in the audience and Barrymore, but between her and anyone looking for a little empathy.

It's no secret to anyone who knows their Drew Barrymore lore that the actor's first marriage was a short-lived disaster. In March 1994, Barrymore — who was 19 years old at the time — married Jeremy Thomas, a 31-year-old bar owner whom she had only begun dating earlier that year. They split just a few weeks later, with Barrymore officially filing for divorce in May 1994.

"He turned out to be the biggest schmuck I've ever met in all my years of existence," Barrymore allegedly said of Thomas, a Welsh national, during the divorce proceedings, according to the unauthorized 2000 biography "Happily Ever After: The Drew Barrymore Story" by Leah and Elina Furman. The quote attributed to Barrymore continues, "It was a green card situation. That's why I couldn't tell anybody." The divorce was finalized in 1995, with Barrymore continuing to not mince words about Thomas during an interview with Rolling Stone that year. She first referred to him as her "ex-husband" before correcting herself and calling him "the devil."

All of this is to say that it's not terribly difficult to see why things didn't work out between Barrymore and Thomas. Barrymore's second marriage to actor and comedian Tom Green, meanwhile, simply seemed to be a case of poorly-timed, whirlwind decision-making. Unlike with Thomas, Barrymore maintains an amicable post-divorce relationship with Green.

However, it was Barrymore's divorce from her third (and longest-tenured) husband, Will Kopelman, that seemed to take the hardest toll on her, as it seemed to defy easy explanation. "Nothing went wrong, which is cleaner, but makes it harder and more confusing because there isn't The Thing to point to. We tried so hard to make it work," Barrymore told People in 2022. Hopefully, all of this has resulted in some hard-earned lessons, and judging from her talk show, Barrymore obviously has the kindness and vulnerability to share them with those in need.