Drew Barrymore's dream of having a family didn't turn out exactly the way she pictured, but she is, as she puts it, figuring it out "with grace."
The actress and Will Kopelman share daughters Olive, 4, and Frankie, 2. The couple divorced last year after three years of marriage. Since their separation, they've been co-parenting their daughters in New York.
Barrymore talked about her divorce and raising her children in an interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show Thursday.
"It was just like my worst nightmare. I so wanted to raise kids in this ultra-traditional way and do everything so the polar opposite of my experience," she said.
"It really is about the tone you set and you can talk until you're blue in the face but kids watch what you do every single day of your life, all day long, and that behavior and that example and that love and community and honesty is just, I think what's making everything feel safe for my kids," she said. "And that's really the intention I had as a parent, was how do my kids have this incredible sense of like, freedom inside their heart, because they know I've got them and their dad's got them and the [rest of their family]."
"I got two families," she continued. "I went from like, zero to two and it's a miracle and a blessing and we do it in a way that I think a lot of other people are probably doing it too and sometimes, again, the road is different than what you tried to make it or what you expected and you just figure it out and figure it out with grace."
Barrymore has had to leave her kids behind in New York several times recently as she has been traveling to promote her new Netflix series, Santa Clarita Diet, which debuts Friday. But she makes sure to spend as much time as possible with the girls and recently took them on a trip to Walt Disney World.
"We went to Disney World which is such a dream come true for any family," she told Ellen DeGeneres. "You're just seeing your kids' joy and I was just crying the whole time. Cinderella thought I was nuts."