Valerie Bertinelli Can't Stop Reflecting On Her Marriage To Eddie Van Halen
Valerie Bertinelli and Eddie Van Halen had that "opposites attract" thing going for them when they first got together in the early 1980s. The "One Day at a Time" star was known as America's Sweetheart when she married the Van Halen rocker in 1981, but behind the scenes the two had a lot more in common than people knew. Following Van Halen's death from cancer in October 2020, Bertinelli shared new details about their tumultuous 25-year marriage ,which produced one son, Wolfgang, before it ended in 2007.
In a March interview on the "Literally! With Rob Lowe" podcast, Bertinelli revealed that, once she started dating Van Halen, "all of a sudden there was this rule that there was no girlfriends and no wives allowed on the road." She also admitted she was "lucky" to survive the drug rollercoaster that came with her husband's career. "I am a prude now but I [partook] as well for a few years there until I just couldn't take it anymore," she said. "Cocaine was everywhere... and easy to get."
Bertinelli added that her late ex-husband often used drugs to deal with his internal pain, and that he later made "amends" with people that he mistreated while under the influence. "His heart ... was just so kind and so sweet," she said. "I was too immature and I was too into my own world to know how to help. I was a kid. We were 20 when I got married. That's insane."
Valerie Bertinelli considers Eddie Van Halen her 'soulmate'
While Valerie Bertinelli and Eddie Van Halen divorced and married other people — Bertinelli to Tom Vitale and Van Halen to Janie Liszewski — they considered each other "soulmates." In her 2022 memoir "Enough Already: Learning to Love the Way I Am Today," Bertinelli revealed that, in 2019, Van Halen brought her a gold bar that he got while on a trip to Germany. "I hope you don't think it's weird, you know, that I bought my ex-wife this gift and didn't get my wife anything." he told her at the time, per Entertainment Tonight Canada. "I just love you."
Bertinelli also revealed that "I love you" was the last thing her ex said to her and their son before he died. "I loved Ed more than I know how to explain," she wrote in the book. "I loved his soul. .... I can't explain the feelings Ed and I had for each other. Who really knows had he not died."
After Van Halen died, Bertinelli posted a throwback family photo from the early 1990s, when their son Wolfgang was a baby. In the tweet's caption, she noted how much her life changed when she met her future husband 40 years prior. "I'm so grateful Wolfie and I were able to hold you in your last moments," she captioned the image. "I will see you in our next life my love."