Valerie Bertinelli made an emotional appearance on Thursday’s Today show where she opened up about her divorce from Tom Vitale. Bertinelli, who was previously married to Eddie Van Halen, declared that will spend the rest of her life alone.
“I am gonna be more than happy to be happily divorced and spend the rest of my life alone. I’ll be happy that way,” she told Hoda Kotb. “With my six cats and my dog and my son, and hopefully one day grandchildren.”
Kotb asked Bertinelli if she sees herself looking for love again one day.
“Oh God, no,” the Enough Already author replied. “Because of the challenges that I’m going through right now, because divorce sucks. I can’t imagine ever trusting anyone again to let into my life. So I have some trust issues that I’m sure I’m going to have to get past.”
Bertinelli filed for divorce from Vitale in May. They’ve been separated since 2019, according to paperwork. The One Day at a Time star married the financial planner in 2011. They don’t share any kids, but he’s requested spousal support and wants to block her from requesting it.
Van Halen and Bertinelli were married from 1981 to 2007. They shared son Wolfgang, 31. She and her ex-husband were close at the time of the rocker’s passing in 2022.
“What did Eddie’s passing teach or reveal to you?” Kotb asked.
“Love,” Bertinelli replied. “If there’s nothing else in this world, go back to that key point that you know you have inside you, that you know that you feel for the people that are closest to you. That love — love always wins no matter what, even when they’re gone there’s still that love there to be grateful for that you had.”
Bertinelli acknowledged she and the Van Halen had many “bumpy moments” during their relationship.
“No matter what you go through, you can always find your way back to love and forgiveness and we were able to do that, gratefully,” she continued. “I wish he hadn’t died after that. It would have been nice to spend some more time with him! But yeah, I was grateful that we had that.”
Bertinelli was emotional throughout the interview.
“You never go into marriage thinking you’re going to get a divorce… and here I am, twice divorced,” she explained. “It sucks. It sucks because, you know, it’s hard to not have a person in your life who you thought you wanted to spend the rest of your life with.”
