Valerie Bertinelli was married to a rockstar, is a star, has a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame and has a rockstar son.
But overshadowing her more than 50 years of successes are the ups and down she’s experienced in her love life and with her weight.
Now, Hollywood’s sweetheart is dropping some weight and unloading the baggage that once made her believe that her body is what makes a person lovable.
When she was only 14, Valerie Bertinelli, now 65, appeared in an episode of the TV series Apple’s Way, and captured the attention of Norman Lear, who was responsible for many touchstone TV shows of the 1970s, like All in the Family, Maude, Sanford and Sons and One Day at a Time.
Bertinelli was cast in the role of Barbara, the daughter of Bonnie Franklin’s character Ann Romano, and sister to Mackenzie Philips’ Julie.
By the time she was 22, Bertinelli earned two Golden Globe wins for her performance in the popular TV series, that ran from 1975 to 1984. And in that time, she also found love with Eddie Van Halen, whom she was married from 1981 to 2007.
The pair have one son, Wolfgang, born in 1991. Bertinelli, who remained close with her ex-husband, was at Eddie’s side when he died of cancer in 2020.
After several stints on short-lived TV series, like Sydney with Matthew Perry of Friends, Bertinelli then became a regular cast member in Touched by an Angel, playing Gloria in the last two seasons.
