"You are always enough!"

Celebrations are Emmy- and Golden Globe–winning actress and kitchen maven Valerie Bertinelli’s strong suit. And this Mother’s Day, she’s sharing her secrets to honoring every mom in our lives and finding love around us in each moment. Here, her secrets to making your sweetest memories yet!

- Deborah Evans Price

Valerie Bertinelli has worn many hats in her life, including actress, chef, TV personality and acclaimed author. But this Mother’s Day, she says being a mom to her son, Wolfgang Van Halen, is her best role of all.

“I adore him!” she gushes to Woman’s World of her son, who, following in his late father Eddie Van Halen’s footsteps, released his debut album, Mammoth WVH, in 2021. “I love what a kind, thoughtful, funny human he is. It’s weird that I have a 32-year-old adult son—life goes by in a flash!”

For the 63-year-old, that life has had its share of ups and downs, from the loss of her ex-husband and friend, Eddie Van Halen, to her recent divorce from Tom Vitale and struggles with self-acceptance.

But through it all, Valerie has stayed strong, which she attributes to the women she honors each Mother’s Day. “I come from a long line of incredible women,” she says. “My great-grandmother was on the poverty list in Italy, but earned enough money with her gelato cart to come to America. And my mom came from nothing. She left home at 16, married my dad at 17 and started a family.”

Though her mother has passed, Valerie’s memories of her live on. “She was so smart, funny and talented, and I loved making her feel loved. I would look at her and say, ‘I love you and appreciate everything you’ve done for me.’” Here, how the light of her mother’s memory has helped Valerie achieve self-love, and her tips to finding joy and peace in all of life’s seasons.

1 Pain doesn’t last