One thing that doesn’t come in the guidebook to fame is how to deal with the struggles of raising kids in the public eye, and that’s something Drew Barrymore and Pamela Anderson know all too well.
Barrymore, 47, was on the verge of tears during an emotional interview with the Baywatch alum, 55, on the Monday, February 13, episode of The Drew Barrymore Show after Anderson recounted the drastic measures she took to ensure her and ex-husband Tommy Lee’s kids’, Brandon, 26, and Dylan Lee, 25, safety growing up.
“My kids didn’t know they had a security guard at school,” Pamela — whose new book Love, Pamela: A Memoir of Prose, Poetry, and Truth is out now — told the daytime host. “I hired someone to be an assistant PE instructor just to be there ‘cause people were trying to take them off the schoolyard. I had to find clever ways to kind of make them feel everything was normal, but I needed to know eyes were on them and not, you know, I was not going to take that chance.”
As a mother-of-two herself — sharing daughters Olive, 10, and Frankie, 8, with ex-husband Will Kopelman — Barrymore said she can easily relate to the actress’ struggles. “I so understand. I get it,” she stated while choking up. “Don’t f–k with my kids. This is not OK. They didn’t sign up for this.”
Both stars have been in limelight from an early age. Barrymore made her big break in 1982’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, while Anderson skyrocketed to fame thanks to her role as C.J. Parker on Baywatch — not to mention getting caught up in her and Lee’s now-infamous sex tape scandal.
But as Barrymore told her guest, “Maybe, our whole lives were the best things for setting us up as parents.” Anderson agreed, noting that she hopes people will learn from both of their experiences, stating, “We just have to make sure that women know how to make themselves safe, from very young girls.”
Also during the interview, the host brought up how Anderson previously stated that she doesn’t know “exactly how to love someone” that isn’t the father of her children, Lee, 60.
“It’s just that connection that you don’t have with anybody else,” Anderson shared. “And people may say that they can get past it, but I can’t. I haven’t been able to, and that’s okay. I don’t even care if I’m alone the rest of my life.”
She continued, “I’ve experienced really wonderful, loving moments, and sometimes, things don’t last forever for a reason, and it’s okay. It’s fine, it’s OK. In the last year I spent alone, I think it’s been the happiest year of my life.”
