The Shady Side Of Valerie Bertinelli's Ex Mike Goodnough We Can't Ignore

Valerie Bertinelli hasn't had the easiest time of things when it comes to love. Her candid dating confessions reveal how tragic her love life is following her split from boyfriend Mike Goodnough, with whom she was in a brief but serious relationship. "I have two failed marriages and fumbled the last true good man I met," Bertinelli confessed on Instagram after her last breakup, per Page Six. The two were together for less than a year after meeting on the photo-sharing app in 2024 — the exact same way her son, Wolfgang van Halen, met his wife, Andraia Allsop. Despite appearing to be on good terms, both have since hinted that their split may have been more complicated and messier than they initially let on.

In a message posted in April 2025, Goodnough exposed his shady side as he accused Bertinelli of repeatedly taking "backhanded swipes" at him on social media, according to Fox News. After receiving DMs from fans asking whether he and Bertinelli were engaged in a word war, Goodnough addressed the speculation in a post, saying, "That is not the case. I have never at any time posted something on social media for the purposes of communicating with someone indirectly when I know them personally and have ample ways to reach them directly," basically calling Bertinalli immature. "I am an adult," Goodnough argued. "I am very capable of communicating openly and directly with people I know and care about."

He went on to slam Bertinelli for "playing a one-woman tennis match" with herself, in which she makes up scenarios in her head and gets worked up over nothing. "She just won't stop shooting," said Goodnough. "Valerie is in a war with her ghosts. I'm just the guy who catches the bullets. And that isn't new."

Since then, Mike Goodnough has taken down his rant against Valerie Bertinelli and posted a well-thought-out message on Instagram addressing their fallout. He began by sharing his regret over letting his emotions get the best of him and acknowledged the damage his post had caused. Noting that they had been on speaking terms until recently, Goodnough explained that their split still feels raw to him despite all the time that's passed. He also opened up about their breakup, saying there were a number of reasons why their downfall was inevitable. "Almost all of them were 'external,'" he noted. "They were things outside of our relationship per se which nonetheless interfered."

Regardless of how things unfolded, Goodnough said his love and feelings for Bertinelli never changed, which is why it pains him to be in this situation with her. "[This] has been by far the most painful experience of my life," he mused. "It has been so acutely agonizing, it has entirely changed the scale of how much heartbreak can hurt." He had tried to reach out in hopes that they could save at least their friendship but received no response from the actor. So with a heavy heart, "This chapter is now closed for me," Goodnough concluded his post. "I've cried about this enough. It's time to move on."

To be fair, Bertinelli has taken accountability for her role in the breakup, admitting her past traumas may have affected the way she handled her issues with Goodnough. "I don't want that to be an excuse, but you can reflect back and go, 'Oof, I could have handled that better had I not let old traumas take over — or my ego,'" she confessed on "The Drew Barrymore Show" (via People).