14 DAY TRIAL // A couple of days ago, the body of a woman named Jessica Barrymore was found in a car in a community in National City, California, with all evidence on the scene pointing to a potential suicide. Word that she was the half-sister of Hollywood actress Drew Barrymore got out and spread like wildfire.
There was more that connected them than the fact that they had the same father, even if they only met once, Dorothy Steinbeck, Jessica’s surrogate mother, tells the Daily Mail: Jessica lived her entire life in her famous sister’s shadow and this was what probably pushed her to such a tragic course of action.
John Barrymore, Jessica, and Drew’s father, told Drew about her half-sister when she was still a child, showing her a photo of this relative she didn’t even know she had. Her reaction was, “How could I possibly be related to someone so fat?,” which John made sure he let Jessica know when he returned home.
Those words never left her for her entire adult life. Not only did Jessica struggle with addiction and a weight problem, but she was also constantly reminded by her father that, no matter what she did, she would never be even half as good as Drew, the perfect daughter.
The Daily Mail spoke to family friends and Ms. Steinbeck, and all of them describe John as an “absentee dad, an alcoholic and a criminal” who ruined both Drew and Jessica’s life simply because he could.
They also reveal that Jessica too had flirted with acting at a younger age, but her dreams were cut short when John intervened to let her know that he wasn’t about to let “Hollywood exploit her.” Meanwhile, he made sure to always remind her of Drew and how successful she was from the tender age of 9.
“Things happened to Jessica that were very sad. It's time people know. She was in a lot of pain. She had terrible body image issues and suffered enormously from lack of self esteem. She felt abandoned,” a friend shares.
Jessica had also struggled with addiction, just like Drew. The car she was found in was reportedly filled with alcohol and pills, which led to a first theory that she might have taken her own life. An autopsy and toxicology tests will establish the exact cause of death.
Ms. Steinbeck likes to think that none of that would have happened if only Drew had been a bit closer to Jessica, if she’d actually taken the time to build a relationship with her.
“I just always felt that it was kind of strange that she just completely rejected all of her siblings,” she says for the same publication. “Do you know there was not one blood relative at her wedding? ‘Not even her mother. I get that to a certain degree. She felt and she'd said this before that her family saw her as a meal ticket, and that she had been exploited to a large degree and I believe that estrangement is why her mother wasn't there at her wedding.”
Jessica wouldn’t have exploited her, Ms. Steinbeck is convinced, recalling a time when she moved to LA to pursue acting and had to change her phone number after just one week because people kept ringing her to ask her about her famous sibling.
“We always used to laugh when she said she had no family: What are you talking about, girl? You have lots of family that you won't have anything to do with. Jessica never tried to contact Drew even once. Anyway, Jessica wanted to be overly careful that Drew didn't think she was being used or that she wanted something from her,” the surrogate mother says.
In a statement released shortly after news of Jessica’s death got out, Drew expressed her regret and sent prayers and positive thoughts to her half-sister’s family. She also explained they had met just once.