Valerie Bertinelli: Love, Marriage, and Math Gone Wrong

In her new memoir, Getting Naked: The Quiet Work of Becoming Perfectly Imperfect, Valerie Bertinelli candidly discusses her complicated relationship with love and marriage. She admits that romance has never been easy for her, describing it as a "messy math equation" where she struggles with the calculations of love and marriage, leading to two public divorces.

Bertinelli shared that her marriage to Eddie Van Halen, which began in 1981 and ended in divorce in 2007, was amicable. She noted that they maintained love for each other until his death in October 2020. This differed significantly from her second marriage to Tom Vitale, which concluded with their split in 2022 after more than a decade together.

The television personality questioned how she could sustain love for her first husband post-divorce but not her second. She expressed a shift towards indifference and grace regarding Vitale, a healthier state than holding onto anger. Bertinelli also tied her relationship difficulties to her parents' marriage, which she described as dishonest, leading to her own wariness of intimacy and trust issues.

During her marriage to Vitale, which was unraveling, Bertinelli hosted several seasons of Valerie's Home Cooking on Food Network. She revealed that drinking served as an escape from the stress and pain of her failing relationship, a habit she has since abandoned. The divorce from Vitale profoundly impacted her, causing her to question the reality of their love and leaving her feeling angry.