TLDR: Valerie Bertinelli was only 15 when One Day at a Time made her a star. She spent the next two decades married to one of rock’s biggest guitarists, and decades after that finally admitting in print that neither the marriage nor her own body image had ever been as simple as the tabloids made them look.
Bertinelli played younger daughter Barbara Cooper on One Day at a Time starting in 1975, one of only three cast members to stay for the show’s full nine-season run alongside Bonnie Franklin and Pat Harrington Jr.
It was her very first major role, launched at an age when most of her castmates already had real careers behind them, and she later admitted she spent much of that time quietly comparing her body to co-star Mackenzie Phillips’s.
She Married a Guitarist Just as Famous as She Was
At just 20 years old, Bertinelli fell for rock guitarist Eddie Van Halen, and the two married within months in 1981, at the height of both their respective fames.
They had one son together, Wolfgang, born in 1991 and named after Mozart, who later became his father’s own bandmate on bass and earned his own Grammy nomination decades later with his band Mammoth WVH.
The couple separated in 2001 and divorced in 2007, but stayed genuinely close afterward. When Van Halen died of cancer in October 2020, Bertinelli posted a tribute writing, “40 years ago my life changed forever when I met you.
You gave me the one true light in my life, our son, Wolfgang,” and later told a television audience it had been “rough” and “bittersweet” adjusting to life without him.
She Turned Her Own Body Image Struggles Into Three Honest Books
Bertinelli became a spokeswoman for Jenny Craig in 2007, losing 40 pounds and posing in a bikini for People magazine, a moment of very public transformation that she later revealed had actually made things worse rather than better.
She wrote in her bestselling 2008 memoir, Losing It: And Gaining My Life Back One Pound at a Time, that she’d used food as an emotional crutch for years, and admitted candidly that infidelity on her own part, not just Van Halen’s drug and alcohol struggles, had played a real role in the marriage’s collapse.
She followed it with a second memoir, Enough Already: Learning to Love the Way I Am Today, published after Van Halen’s death, and told one interviewer the real cause of her post-divorce weight gain wasn’t grief over the marriage itself. “What my sorrow was, that I wasn’t giving my son the life I thought he deserved and I wasn’t keeping the family intact,” she said. “I think I had a lot of grief about that and that was how I soothed myself.”
By her third memoir, Getting Naked, published decades after her first Jenny Craig campaign, Bertinelli said she’d finally stopped weighing herself entirely. “When I look at myself in the mirror or I see photographs, it’s like, ‘Who cares?'” she said. “I’m smiling.”
She Built a Genuine Second Career in Food Television
Bertinelli reinvented herself as a Food Network personality, hosting shows including Valerie’s Home Cooking and Kids Baking Championship and winning two Daytime Emmy Awards for her work.
She also starred in the TV Land sitcom Hot in Cleveland, reuniting on screen with two of her original One Day at a Time castmates, Bonnie Franklin and Pat Harrington Jr., in guest appearances years after the original show ended.
Her Second Marriage Ended More Recently Than Fans Realize
Bertinelli met financial planner Tom Vitale in 2004, becoming stepmother to his four children after they married on New Year’s Day 2011. The couple separated in November 2021 and finalized their divorce the following year.
She’s spoken about the split with real equanimity, saying afterward, “I’m happily divorced. I have a great life and I’m learning to embrace the moments.” It’s a tone that’s carried through most of her public reflections on both marriages, rock star and financial planner alike.
You can read more about the rest of the One Day at a Time cast in our full guide to the show.
Valerie Bertinelli, Frequently Asked Questions
Was Valerie Bertinelli married to Eddie Van Halen?
Yes, they married in 1981 and had one son, Wolfgang, before divorcing in 2007. The two remained close until Van Halen’s death from cancer in 2020.
Did Valerie Bertinelli marry again after Eddie Van Halen?
Yes, she married financial planner Tom Vitale on New Year’s Day 2011. They separated in November 2021 and divorced in 2022.
What does Valerie Bertinelli do now?
She built a second career as a Food Network personality, hosting shows including Valerie’s Home Cooking and winning two Daytime Emmy Awards.
What has Valerie Bertinelli written about her body image?
She has published three memoirs on the subject, Losing It, Enough Already, and Getting Naked, detailing decades of struggles with weight, a Jenny Craig spokesperson role, and eventually giving up weighing herself entirely.
