Valerie Bertinelli revealed on Wednesday that she has fallen in love again.
But the 63-year-old cookbook author said she would never have met this guy if she hadn’t worked on herself first.
The One Day At A Time star spent three years sorting out her emotional baggage before she was ready to invite someone else into her life.
“I really want women and men to take away that it’s the work you do (on yourself) that can lead you to meet someone that I’ve been lucky enough to meet right now,” said The Hot In Cleveland actress who spoke with USA TODAY.
“This wouldn’t have happened three years ago, four years ago, last year – it wouldn’t,” added the star, who has gotten back into shape thanks to Pilates.
‘And I feel incredibly lucky to have met him and made a connection with him.’
Valerie Bertinelli revealed on Wednesday that she has fallen in love again. But the 63-year-old cookbook author said she would never have met this guy if she hadn’t worked on herself first. Seen in a throwback photo where she said she weighed 150kg
The One Day At A Time star spent three years sorting out her emotional baggage before she was ready to invite someone else into her life. “I really want women and men to take away that it’s the work you do (on yourself) that can lead you to meet someone that I’ve been lucky enough to meet right now,” said actress Hot In Cleveland; seen Sunday
She did not name the man she has fallen for after splitting from Tom Vitale years ago.
Valerie shared her news to help promote her book Pamper, which comes out in April.
Valerie also said that this new man in her life ‘came out of left field’ and she was surprised that they fit.
The sitcom star filed for divorce from her second husband, financial planner Tom Vitale, in November 2021.
Their divorce was finalized a year later with a settlement in which Valerie was forced to pay Tom $2.2 million.
As recently as last June, she joked on TikTok that she responded to questions about whether she would start dating again soon by saying: ‘Yeah, f*** no.’
Now, however, she’s changed her mind – on Monday she reinstated the old TikTok to her Insta Stories, saying: ‘This doesn’t age well.’
She then gave a brilliant interview to USA today about her new romance, though she refrained from giving any personal information about him, such as his name.
‘I have met someone. And I am incredibly grateful to him. It’s unlike any relationship I’ve ever experienced with a man,’ she gushed.
‘I don’t want to say too much, but I feel incredibly blessed and lucky to have met him because I didn’t expect it!’ she added.
She told USA TODAY: ‘This wouldn’t have happened three years ago, four years ago, last year — it wouldn’t be,’ added the star, who has gotten back into shape thanks to Pilates. ‘And I feel incredibly lucky to have met him and made a connection with him’
‘He wasn’t on my radar. I would die with my six cats and my dog and be incredibly happy to do it,’ the One Day At A Time star admitted. ‘So this came out of left field and I’m grateful for that. He is very special.’
As for her decision to announce the relationship on Instagram this week, she wondered: ‘What did I do?…I just can’t help it.
‘When I freak out, it’s all over me and he’s one of the main reasons.’
Valerie’s first husband was the legendary late rock star Eddie Van Halen, with whom she shares a now 32-year-old named Wolfgang.
She has been candid about her turbulent marriage to Eddie, which finally went down in flames in 2001 when his addiction took its toll on their relationship.
She began dating Tom Vitale in 2004 and married him in 2011, becoming stepmother to his two sons and two daughters; they are pictured in 2012
Valerie’s first husband was the legendary late rock star Eddie Van Halen, with whom she shares a now 32-year-old named Wolfgang; Valerie and Eddie pictured in 1987
This comes a month after Bertinelli shared an empowering message with fans about body positivity and self-esteem.
The actress revealed she stopped weighing herself after learning she was ‘considered overweight’ at 150lbs – and was hit back by herself looking incredible in a bikini at that weight.
Valerie defiantly described learning to embrace her character rather than the number on the scale.
Her new book is Indulge: Delicious and Decadent Dishes to Enjoy and Share
‘2014 #tbt This is a 150lb body on a 5’4 frame. I don’t weigh myself anymore because this is considered obese by whose standards I don’t know,” she began in the caption.
‘It’s stupid and I believed them for far too long. I now finally know that I am a kind, considerate, funny, thoughtful woman. So remember who you are and what your character is should never be overshadowed by what size you are or how much you weigh. You are enough. Just as you are. Fuck them.’
A former spokesperson for Jenny Craig, Valerie’s struggles with her weight have played out in the public eye.
In 2023, while promoting her upcoming cookbook Indulge: Delicious and Decadent Dishes to Enjoy and Share, Valerie described how her relationship with food has changed over the years — and how she no longer counts calories.
“I no longer deny myself and instead indulge in the whole experience of cooking,” Bertinelli shared People. The actress is big on body positivity.
“I’ve spent more than a decade changing my relationship with food,” the Food Network star added.
‘All great leaps require small steps, patience, forgiveness and a desire to grow and change.’
She lost 50 kg in 2009 and posed in a bikini for the cover of People
‘I stopped counting calories and I stopped thinking of certain foods as good or bad. I stopped saying no and started saying yes.
“And I indulge myself,” she adds. ‘I indulge in the pleasures of being alive, and food is one of those pleasures – an essential pleasure.
“This cookbook marks the journey that I – and so many of us – have taken to get to this place where I no longer deny myself,” she added.
In October, she posted a video of herself wearing the same outfit she wore in her first ‘before’ photo as a Jenny Craig spokesperson.
‘Health is not a body size. Health is not the number you see on the scale. Your worth as a human being is not dictated by your body,” she said as she stood in front of the mirror wearing a pink button up shirt and jeans.
“I thought I was fat the last time I wore these clothes,” she said. And yet: ‘I have never felt more beautiful, more at peace, more mentally and emotionally stable than I do today.’