'We do not feel this takes away from us being a family'

Less than one day after news broke that Drew Barrymore and husband Will Kopelman are divorcing, the couple has released an exclusive statement to PEOPLE.

“Sadly our family is separating legally, although we do not feel this takes away from us being a family,” the pair said in their statement. “Divorce might make one feel like a failure, but eventually you start to find grace in the idea that life goes on.

“Our children are our universe, and we look forward to living the rest of our lives with them as the first priority.”

Barrymore and Kopelman share two children – Olive, 3, and Frankie, 1 – and had been married for nearly four years. A source previously told people that the couple have been working out the next steps in their split, including living arrangements for the girls. They’ll likely stay in New York City, where Olive goes to preschool, for the near future, the source said.

In October, Barrymore spoke to PEOPLE about how much she enjoys watching Kopelman with their two little ones.

“Honestly, I don’t know how it is for other couples but really I like watching him be a father,” Barrymore said at the time. “I know everyone says you’re supposed to put your coupledom first. But I really love it being all about the kids. Maybe that’s my compensating for not having parents myself or a childhood but right now, the focus is about how we’re figuring things out as parents.”

Barrymore also revealed that she changed her career outlook to work around her family.

“I just got right on the idea of, where do I need to be the most? Fifty-fifty would be ideal but life doesn’t work like that. Life is messy,” the actress-turned-beauty mogul said. “It was just really challenging and I felt overwhelmed. I made a lot of decisions and I definitely changed my work life to suit my parenthood.”

Also in October, Barrymore admitted in an interview with InStyle that it “was never really love at first sight” with Kopelman.

“Will struck a lot of my pragmatic sides,” she said. “He was someone who was always reachable on the phone, someone who was a classy human being, someone who has this incredible blueprint of a family that I don’t have.”