Drew Barrymore says she is still recovering from her "worst nightmare" after splitting from her third husband Will Kopelman last year.
The couple ended their four-year marriage last April, but Drew and her ex have remained amicable for the sake of their daughters, Olive, four, and Frankie, two.
And now the actress has opened up about the split during an appearance on The Ellen Degeneres Show, revealing she put on a very brave face while her world was unravelling.
"It was just, like, my worst nightmare," she told her pal, adding that she and Kopelman are going out of their way to make sure their children aren't scarred by the divorce.
"I so wanted to raise kids in this ultra-traditional way and do everything so the polar opposite of my experience. And you know, 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 behaviour and that example and that love and community and honesty is just, I think, what's making everything feel safe for my kids.
"That's really the intention I had as a parent."
The star of the new TV show Santa Clarita Diet has come to like the idea that she's now the mother in a "modern family", adding, "[My kids] know I've got them and their dad's got them and Grammy and Poppy ... I'm wearing Grammy's necklace right now ... And we do it, you know, in a way that I think a lot of other people are probably doing it too.
"The road is different than what you try to make it, or what you expected, and you just figure it out. And you figure it out with grace."
Barrymore, 41, recently confessed she has no plans to enter the dating scene again following her split, telling SiriusXM's radio host Andy Cohen, "I'm not ready. I'm still in shock over everything. I'm going to take a while."
Asked by Cohen if she ever considered trying dating apps, Drew confessed she had been watching her friends use the online dating services but had serious reservations about using them herself.
"My concern with the dating app is always like, am I going to be that person who classically meets a psycho, and then I end up murdered that nigh?" Drew laughed. "So I think that alone was a turn off."
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