Drew Barrymore and Will Kopelman to Divorce, Sources Confirm: What Went Wrong
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Drew Barrymore and Will Kopelman are planning to divorce after almost four years of marriage, multiple sources confirm to PEOPLE.
“They’ve had marriage issues for a while,” says a source close to the family. Among their disagreements: “There was tension over where to live,” the source says, with Barrymore increasingly drawn to L.A. and Kopelman preferring New York City. The couple and their children, Olive Barrymore Kopelman, 3, and Frankie Barrymore Kopelman, 1, have been living on the Upper East Side of New York City.
Barrymore had grown close to Kopelman’s parents, Arie and Coco, and his sister Jill Kargman. “Drew fell in love with Will’s family,” the source says.
Another source says the couple have been working out the next steps in their split, including living arrangements for the girls. They’ll likely stay in New York City, where Olive goes to preschool, for the near future, the source says.
Kopelman, the source adds, is “devastated” by the divorce. Page Six first reported the split. Reps for the couple have not yet commented.
In October, Barrymore spoke to PEOPLE about how much she enjoys watching Kopelman with their two little ones.
“Honestly, I don’t know how it is for other couples but really I like watching him be a father,” Barrymore said at the time. “I know everyone says you’re supposed to put your coupledom first. But I really love it being all about the kids. Maybe that’s my compensating for not having parents myself or a childhood but right now, the focus is about how we’re figuring things out as parents.”
Barrymore also revealed that she suffered from postpartum depression following the birth of her second child and that she changed her career outlook to work around her family.
“I just got right on the idea of, where do I need to be the most? Fifty-fifty would be ideal but life doesn’t work like that. Life is messy,” the actress-turned-beauty mogul said. “It was just really challenging and I felt overwhelmed. I made a lot of decisions and I definitely changed my work life to suit my parenthood.”
Also in October, Barrymore admitted in an interview with InStyle that it “was never really love at first sight” with Kopelman.
“Will struck a lot of my pragmatic sides,” she said. “He was someone who was always reachable on the phone, someone who was a classy human being, someone who has this incredible blueprint of a family that I don’t have.”
While she admitted that they are “polar opposites” when it comes to expressing their likes and dislikes, she admired that Koplelman “chooses to be a good person every day.”
Last June, Barrymore shared a shot of the couple dining at a restaurant for their three-year anniversary.
“Happy anniversary Mr. Kopelman, cheers to you! I love you and I love our daughters !!!!!!! #threeyears,” she wrote.
The couple were last photographed on Jan. 21 at a benefit for the Komansky Center for Children s Health at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.
On March 31, the day before news broke of her split, Barrymore posted photos of a new tattoo she got on her wrist with the names of her children, Olive and Frankie. “Getting a great little lifetime note on my arm,” she wrote.