Valerie Bertinelli: PICKING UP THE PIECES

THE STAR IS REBUILDING HER LIFE AFTER A DIVORCE AND THE CANCELLATION OF HER COOKING SHOW

- Rick Egusquiza

Valerie Bertinelli celebrated her 63rd birthday on April 23 at the airport. “I am so over-the-moon grateful on my birthday this year!” she shared. “I have survived the hardest six years of my life, and now I’m in Amsterdam. And on Thursday, I get to watch my son open for Metallica! Life is good!”

It has been an emotionally trying time of big life changes for the beloved TV personality. Valerie survived the death of Eddie Van Halen, her son’s father, as well as a soul-crushing, costly divorce and the cancellation of her Emmy-winning Food Network series, Valerie’s Home Cooking, all in just a few years time. “It just looked endlessly sad, scary, lonely and stressful,” she said about the experience.

But with all the pluck of Barbara Cooper, the sweetheart character that made her a star on One Day at a Time in the 1970s, Valerie remains hopeful that she’s past the hardest part. “I don’t want to live with regrets anymore,” she said.

END OF AN ERA

Last summer, when the terms of Valerie’s split from Tom Vitale, her husband of 11 years, were still up in the air, she received the painful news that the Food Network would not be renewing Valerie’s Home Cooking for a 15th season. “I have no idea why,” she said in a candid post a few months later. “Honestly I was hoping they would change their mind. But they have not.”