Demi Lovato, 28, and Drew Barrymore, 46, found that they had a lot in common during a candid chat on the new podcast 4D with Demi Lovato.
Particularly, the pair connected over being childhood ‘breadwinners’ after hitting the big time in Hollywood at a young age, and struggling with drug and alcohol addiction early in life.
‘I’m not sure you can remember what you were doing at 8 years old,’ Lovato said in the episode. ‘I was on Barney and Friends being a kid but in many ways feeling like an adult.’
Common ground: Demi Lovato, 28, and Drew Barrymore, 46, discussed the complicated nature of being childhood breadwinners on the new podcast 4D with Demi Lovato
While Demi started earning an impressive paycheck on Barney, actress Drew Barrymore had her big break even younger at six-years-old as Gertie in E.T. the Extraterrestrial.
‘I noticed that when I came into the spotlight at a young age, and then was the breadwinner, there wasn’t a manual for my parents to read and it say, “Here’s what to do to raise a child star,”‘ said Lovato on the podcast. ‘They didn’t get that.’
‘So when they would try to ground me at 17, I would say, “I pay the bills.” And I cringe now when I think about that attitude,’ they said. ‘But when the world is putting you on a pedestal, you kind of think that you could do no wrong. As I’ve gotten older, I see my parents just as big kids themselves.’
‘I noticed that when I came into the spotlight at a young age, and then was the breadwinner, there wasn’t a manual for my parents to read and it say, “Here’s what to do to raise a child star,”‘ said Lovato on the podcast. ‘They didn’t get that.’
‘No wonder you won’t take an order from an authority figure who’s no longer an authority figure because you’ve now reduced them down with finances and responsibilities,’ Drew said in response.
Adding: ‘I’m having amazing realizations about my own kids and how little I understood what boundaries were. I didn’t have them growing up.’
The talk show host shares daughters Frankie and Olive with her ex-husband Will Kopelman.
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Drew also reflected on her troubled childhood in the spotlight which saw her institutionalized at a very young age, addicted to drugs and alcohol and emancipated by 14.
‘So when they would try to ground me at 17, I would say, “I pay the bills.” And I cringe now when I think about that attitude,’ they said. ‘But when the world is putting you on a pedestal, you kind of think that you could do no wrong. As I’ve gotten older, I see my parents just as big kids themselves.’
‘She didn’t know what to do with me,’ Barrymore said of her own mom. ‘She created a monster.’
Drew recalled how her mom would take her to nightclubs like Studio 54 as a child and use her fame to skip the line.
‘I didn’t get the 30-day Malibu treatment center,’ Barrymore recalled. ‘It was nothing like I was in. I was in hardcore Van Nuys Psychiatric. You acted out, you got thrown into the stretcher restraints or the solitary confinement room.’
‘I’m not sure you can remember what you were doing at 8 years old,’ Lovato said in the episode. ‘I was on Barney and Friends being a kid but in many ways feeling like an adult.’ (Demi pictured in 2004’s Camp Rock)
‘First of all, you were Van Nuys. I was San Bernardino,’ Demi said of their own stint in a facility. ‘Wow, I’m glad that we can relate to each other.’
Demi recently launched the popular new podcast earlier this month and in the first episode came out as non-binary. Lovato now uses the pronouns they/them.
The Camp Rock alum, who identifies as pansexual, said that they don’t want to be seen as an ‘expert or spokesperson,’ and has ‘opened up another level of vulnerability’ by sharing the news with their fans.
Their truth: Demi recently launched the popular new podcast earlier this month and in the first episode came out as non-binary. Lovato now uses the pronouns they/them
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