Drew Barrymore responds to accusations that she 'hates sex '

Entertainment Weekly
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Drew Barrymore is addressing accusations that she "hates sex" after recent comments she made about the relative unimportance of sex in her life at this time.

In a new blog post, the 47-year-old shared that she has had no issue abstaining from sex "for years." The piece was published in response to a woman who accused her of "hating sex," with Barrymore writing that her feelings about intimacy have evolved over the years.

"I have very different feelings about intimacy than I did growing up," the former child star writes. "I did not have role model parents and I engaged with people in grown up ways since a tender age! I was looking for companionship! Validation! Excitement! Pleasure! Hedonism! Fun! And adventures!! Now, because I can't get in the time machine and change my history, I now choose to look at it through a positive lens, which is that I have lived! I lived a very rich, full life. However, after two kids and a separation from their father that has made me cautious, I have had the pleasure of shifting my focus when it comes to love for myself and my two daughters."

The star shares daughters Olive, 10, and Frankie, 8, with her former husband Will Kopelman. She writes that she has "not been able to have an intimate relationship" since the couple split in 2016. Instead, she's been focusing on parenting.

"I have had the honor and pleasure to actually work on myself and learn what parenting is, again something I was not exactly clear on growing up and I've had many learning curves thrown my way," she adds. "I'm also raising two daughters, so how we raise girls to be appropriate and empowered and to love themselves and to realize that we live in an age where the images and messages that they will see will also contradict what I have come to believe intimacy is! Intimacy is something that makes you feel good about yourself!  I also talk about and have learned when something doesn't make you feel good or it makes you feel bad about yourself, pay as much attention to that as what makes you feel great because there's a lesson in there."

Drew Barrymore attends the 2022 Paramount Upfront at 666 Madison Avenue on May 18, 2022 in New York City.
Drew Barrymore attends the 2022 Paramount Upfront at 666 Madison Avenue on May 18, 2022 in New York City.

Arturo Holmes/WireImage

The talk show host also shared how her decision has been shaped by the example that she wants to set for her daughters and other young girls.

"I'm not a person who needs sex and has to go out there and engage with people on that level," she says. "I am someone who is deeply committed to fostering how young girls, my daughters, and myself as a woman, are supposed to function in this world! A relationship with a man has not been top of mind for me for a very long time."

Barrymore then set the record straight regarding the recent reaction to her decision, sharing she was approached by a woman who said, "You look just like Drew Barrymore except for you look like you have mental wellness and besides... she hates sex!"

"So for the record, I do not hate sex! I have just finally come to the epiphany that love and sex are simply not the same thing," Barrymore continues, adding that she's happy to now consider herself "a calm woman and not a bombastic party girl."

Barrymore's views on intimacy made headlines last month when she shrugged at Andrew Garfield's remarks about abstaining from sex for six months to help him prepare for his role in Martin Scorsese's Silence, in which he played a Jesuit priest.

"What's wrong with me that six months doesn't seem like a very long time?" the actress said during a discussion with Ross Matthews on The Drew Barrymore Show. "I was like, 'Yeah so?'"

"Drew can go six months, no big deal." Ross noted, to which Barrymore clarified, "Oh, years."

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