Drew Barrymore explains why she’s “scared” of finding love again: “I’m trapped.”

Drew Barrymore has become increasingly honest about her quest for love as a single parent.

The 47-year-old TV host and mom of two got emotional on Jay Shetty’s podcast On Purpose about her dating history, admitting she’s still “scared” and “nervous” about “accepting love” after her split from her ex She admitted that she is still “scared” and “nervous” about “accepting love” after her breakup with her ex – husband Will Kopelman, with whom she shares daughters Olive, 10, and Frankie, 8.

“I’m really good at giving [love] to my daughters and friends, but I noticed how much of my history with the romance space I was stuck in, and I was the one who didn’t want to get stuck,” she explained.

“I wanted to know what I could do to break down my walls and believe and trust,” she adds, adding that she credits the benefits of therapy with helping her achieve those goals. “I was still scared or nervous,” she says, explaining that she couldn’t create a “safe space” for romance to develop when it came to dating.

“If you don’t feel safe, how can you make yourself feel safe? How do you make it work in your favor if you’re not getting that feeling of safety from someone else?” She asked rhetorically.

Barrymore says she is learning important lessons about love through trial and error. For example, after she was recently “ghosted” by a man (meaning someone who suddenly cuts all contact with another person after a long period of communication), she says she has found a silver lining.

“I went on a date with this guy. I think it was the best date ever. I mean it really was,” she recalls. “We made a plan for that weekend, and we texted back and forth, and it was so cute, and I thought, I really like him. What a nice guy. I was drawn to him. I loved what he did because he was in journalism and I loved journalism and I thought, gosh, this is so cool.”

“I never heard from him again,” she continued. “I think that’s what you call a ghost. I was like, wow, that’s it, that’s so weird. Okay.”

” _ _ I’m sorry. I can’t. Don’t hate me. “

When that episode aired years ago, Barrymore said she remembered siding with Carrie, but after closer examination in therapy, she found a healthier perspective on being haunted.

“We can’t be mad at people because they’re not who we want them to be,” she told Sheedy, admitting that if she had gotten a “Jack Berger sticky note” from the person who ghosted her, she might have felt a little closed off.

It was then, she says, that her therapist gave her sound advice: Why not write it yourself?

“I was really like, you just took away all my frustration, anxiety, uncertainty, unfinished business, lack of control, helplessness,” she said of her therapist’s advice. “I felt good. I felt empowered. I felt like I wanted to share that wisdom through a megaphone.”

Barrymore has spoken in the past about dating anxiety as a single mother.

In a December 2022 profile of people, the host said, “I like to be with friends and I also like to be alone, where’s the dating?”

“Every once in a while, I go on a date because it’s a very human, natural thing to do,” she told the media. “I’ll be on a date and think, ‘Oh my God, why did I say yes to dinner? Because we haven’t ordered it yet and I don’t want to be here.'”