
Valérie Bertinelli defends the tribute paid to her ex Eddie Van Halen
Valerie Bertinelli has responded to her “haters” after honoring her late ex-husband Eddie Van Halen on the sixth anniversary of his death.
On Tuesday, the “One Day at a Time” actress shared a photo of the couple in the car, with the caption: “Photos can fade, like old photos do, but not memories and never love.”
In a follow-up video to her followers, Bertinelli, 66, explained that she always gets “repulsed” when she posts a photo with the Van Halen musician, to whom she was married from 1981 to 2007.
“It used to bother me a lot,” she says. “That’s not the case anymore, not anymore. Not anymore, because I’ve learned a lot.”
Bertinelli explained that her online critics don’t outright tell her that she has “no right to love her ex-husband,” but instead they “berate you and berate you for months, making you think you’re crazy until you finally say, ‘OK, fine, I don’t love him.’
“They’ll never say, ‘Take this picture of your ex-husband with you and your son in better days,'” she continued. “But they say you’re obsessed, say all sorts of stupid things until you take the photo down.”
The former Food Network star said she’s “learned a lot” over the years, noting that Eddie — with whom she welcomed son Wolfgang in 1991 — still holds “a big part” of her heart.
“And if I ever fall in love again, I will make room in my heart for that person, without it touching the love I have for Ed, my son, my daughter-in-law, all the people I love,” she continued. “Your heart opens. Because your heart can hold a lot of love. All of our hearts can.”
“So you can’t bother me,” Bertinelli added. “I love Ed. I never stopped loving Ed. And my heart loves very much. Don’t you wish yours could too?”
She captioned the clip: “Tie up haters let’s go for a spin.” »
Wolfgang, 35, also paid tribute to his father on Tuesday, posting a photo of Eddie with his baby on his chest.
“6 years. It couldn’t be simpler,” Wolfgang wrote. “I love and miss you more than you could ever imagine, Pop.”
Eddie died in 2020 from a stroke at the age of 65. He battled throat cancer for six years before his death.
Bertinelli met her late husband in 1980 at a Van Halen concert and married the following year.
She filed for divorce in 2005 after four years of separation. They officially divorced in 2007.
The rocker then married Janie Liszewski in 2009, with Bertinelli attending their wedding.
The “Hot in Cleveland” star, for her part, married financial planner Tom Vitale in 2011. They separated ten years later.
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