Drew Barrymore and John Cena Keep It Real About Retirement: ‘I Don’t Know How and When to Let Go’

Drew Barrymore and John Cena are contemplating the future.

Barrymore, 51, broached the “hard” subject of retirement while interviewing Cena, 48, during the October 8 episode of her eponymous talk show.

“I’ve never not worked… I don’t know how and when to let go,” the Never Been Kissed actress — who has been in the spotlight since she was 11 months old — emotionally admitted to the wrestler-turned-action star. “And I don’t want to retire, necessarily, yet.”

“And I was just curious, like, how you decided to retire from wrestling?” Barrymore, who is a mom to daughters Olive, 14, and Frankie, 12, continued.

For Cena, who officially retired from the sport in December 2025 after becoming the most decorated pro wrestler in WWE history, it was an internal feeling that signaled to him that it was time to stop.

“It’s when — when your beliefs line up, that it’s the right choice,” Cena responded. “I want to be in the ring forever. I want to be there now. I love it. I’ll always love it. I also made a promise to myself to not do bad work. To not selfishly hang on for my own ego, and just to feed my own thing, and take away from everybody else.”

His body also let him know it was time to slow down.

“And I keep track of data points along the way to let me know I’m getting slower, I’m getting older, I’m getting weaker. That’s just time,” the Matchbox star explained. “So, what I did is I pushed the envelope as long as I could. Preparing for shows took longer, recovering from shows took longer.”

Cena admitted getting married to Shay Shariatzadeh also “shifted” his priorities.

“When I’m on the roller coaster by myself, and I got nobody else to worry about, I blow out a knee, it doesn’t affect anybody,” he shared. “When I’m part of a team, that we make a promise to each other like, ‘Hey, I’m going to make responsible decisions,’ so we have as many nights together as we can, and we have as many mornings together as we can. So, my priorities change.”

While Cena acknowledged that people have and will criticize his passion for the business after stepping away, for him, the most passionate act at this point in his career is giving “somebody else a chance” after a “quarter century of opportunity.”

Meanwhile, Barrymore has not announced an official retirement date. According to a March report from Variety, The Drew Barrymore Show has been renewed for two additional seasons, taking it through the 2027–2028 television season.