Drew Barrymore on Raising Kids Post-Split: 'I'm an Overachiever Parent'

— -- Drew Barrymore is opening up about why it's so important for her to be an "overachiever parent" for her daughters.

In an interview with Good Housekeeping magazine, the "Never Been Kissed" actress, who recently announced that she and husband Will Kopelman were splitting up, revealed that the thing she loves most about her relationship with Kopelman are their two kids, Olive, 3, and Frankie, 1.

"I thought I knew what love was but, holy cow, I did not," Barrymore said. "I could never have imagined the kind of love I have for my children."

Barrymore and Kopelman wed in June 2012, and the couple was married for nearly four years before announcing their split earlier this month.

The estranged couple stated that although they will be separated legally, they still want to be a family for their children.

"I am who I am because of my daughters," Barrymore told Good Housekeeping.

Barrymore, 41, admitted that she wants to raise her children in the "opposite way" that she was raised, alluding to her strained relationship with her parents, John Drew and Jaid Barrymore.

Barrymore, whose father died in 2004, legally emancipated herself from her parents when she was 14, and revealed that she now has a "distance, but peaceful" relationship with her mother.

The "50 First Dates" actress noted that in terms of raising her own kids, she is not worried about repeating the same mistakes that her parents made. But Barrymore does want to make sure that her children are more protected than she was growing up as a child star.

"I'm an overachiever parent, and not because I think I'm going to repeat the patterns of my parents. That's not my fear — I've already broken that pattern in my life," Barrymore said.

"But having grown up in the opposite way, I'm raising my children with all consistency, all protection. This is my chance to get it right."