Drew in hottest photo shoot yet

Drew Barrymore sizzles as she talks rehab, her ex and her estranged mum

Drew Barrymore lights up the latest cover of W magazine – in a tousled, Bardot kinda way – in one of her sexiest shoots to date – and opens up about her time in rehab, her ex, and her estranged mum.

The actress/producer has recently taken a departure from her easy-to-watch rom-com movies, and is set to play a darker character – ‘Little Edie’ Beale – in upcoming flick Grey Gardens.

The pretty blonde says channelling her inner turmoil was quite cathartic – and reminded her of her time in rehab as a wayward child.

‘I got institutionalized as a kid, and I felt like I was back there,’ she explains. ‘A lot of times I found myself unhappy and isolated, and the only other time I felt that way was when I was in there.

‘It was absolutely trying to relearn to live. You are learning to become someone else.'

She continued: ‘I was excited to bring my own pain to something. I mean, contrary to my happy-go-luckiness, I have so much darkness in there.

‘Playing Edie, I felt like s***. I thought, “I'm afraid beyond anything I've ever known. I'm miserable; I'm scared; I feel sick all the time." And I was like, “Good! At least I have somewhere to put it.” You know what? I'm not f***in' happy all the time. I like making people feel good, but it was great not to have to please anybody. I was out there for myself and for her.’

Talk turned to love and, inevitably, her five-year relationship with The Strokes star Fabrizio Moretti, which she describes as: ‘One of the most, if not the most, important relationships I've had in my life.

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‘We're still very close. I'm just learning who I am and how relationships work and how to make them function. No different from anyone else.’

And what about the troubled relationship with her mum? ‘My mother and I split ways when I was very young and have never really reconciled.’