Valerie Bertinelli and Eddie Van Halen were one of Hollywood’s top celebrity couples. The One Day at a Time actress and the rock star drew attention with their 1981 wedding. Although they were complete opposites, there was no denying their love for each other. Many assumed they were in it for the long haul, but in 2001, they announced their separation. Now, two decades after their split, Bertinelli is reflecting on her relationship with the late guitarist.
Valerie Bertinelli and Eddie Van Halen’s Son Is the Best Thing That Happened In Their Marriage
Bertinelli and Van Halen officially divorced in 2007, but the exes remained amicable as they co-parented their son Wolfgang.
Like his famous father, Wolfgang is a guitarist and has established his own music career. Recently, Wolfgang was featured in an episode of Behind the Music, which aired on May 1. One of the topics discussed was his relationship with his dad.
Following the release of episode, Bertinelli posted a video on Instagram sharing her thoughts.
I was finally able to watch Wolfie’s Behind the Music. It was not easy. I’d stopped it many times because it was just too brutal to watch for many reasons. One, seeing Wolfie’s pain. Two, seeing what a better job I could have done as a parent even though he turned out magnificently. I made a lot of mistakes. And three, seeing what I had turned of Ed’s and my relationship – into some sort of fantasy, soulmate recreation of history.
The actress then revealed how her marriage to Van Halen turned toxic.
I fell in love with him when I was 20, and it rapidly declined into drugs and alcohol and infidelity. Nothing that makes you feel loved and wanted and cared for. Nothing that would scream soulmate, that’s for sure.
An emotional Bertinelli then became teary-eyed talking about the late rock star.
But after Ed died, I was more than willing to put myself in the grieving widow category for a man that I hadn’t lived with for 20 years. What we had together was this beautiful son that we both unconditionally loved. That’s what I got out of that marriage was Wolfie, the best thing that ever happened to me. Not a soulmate.
Despite their divorce, Bertinelli and Van Halen remained close. The two even attended each other’s weddings. The Food Network chef later married Tom Vitale in 2011, but divorced him in 2022. Van Halen married his girlfriend Janie Liszewski in 2009.
When Eddie passed away in October 2020, Bertinelli and Wolfgang were among the family members by his side. In her memoir, Enough Already: Learning to Love the Way I Am Today, she wrote of her final moments with her ex.
‘I love you’ are the last words Ed says to Wolfie and me, and they are the last words we say to him before he stops breathing.
Bertinelli has kept Van Halen’s memory alive with loving tributes on social media. On his birthday and anniversary of his passing, she posts photos giving fans a candid glimpse of Eddie’s life away from the stage.
