Valerie Bertinelli, 65, Bares Her Soul in ‘Getting Naked’

America fell for Valerie Bertinelli, 65, when she was just a 15-year-old kid, cast by the legendary Norman Lear as Barbara Cooper, the teenage daughter of a single mom (Bonnie Franklin) on the sitcom One Day at a Time. Bertinelli later became a fixture of celebrity culture, with the tabloids following her volatile 26-year marriage to Eddie Van Halen, the virtuoso rock guitarist who passed away in 2020.

After the couple (who had a son, Wolfgang) divorced in 2007, Bertinelli reinvented herself: She became a Food Network star on Valerie’s Home Cooking (and published cookbooks, too); married financial planner Tom Vitale in 2011, then went through a bruising divorce from him in 2022; embraced sobriety; and publicly reckoned with her body image and self-worth.

Now Bertinelli is baring even more, rhetorically, in her new book, Getting Naked: The Quiet Work of Being Perfectly Imperfect, a collection of essays about aging, acceptance and self-love.

Bertinelli (far right) with (from left) Pat Harrington, Bonnie Franklin and Glenn Scarpelli, her castmates on “One Day at a Time,” which ran from 1975 to 1984.

Courtesy Everett Collection

In a candid conversation with Shelley Emling, editor of AARP’s The Girlfriend, Bertinelli opened up about shame, grief, reinvention and current projects — including appearing as a lifestyle expert on Drew Barrymore’s talk show — and her upcoming Lifetime movie Love, Again, in which she plays a woman whose husband is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What was it like writing this very frank book?

Bertinelli revisited some painful times from her past in her new memoir, “Getting Naked.”

Courtesy Harper Collins

What was happening in my life when I was writing this was so insane: childhood traumas that I really needed to finally dig into, and dealing with self-loathing, still, at this age. And giving up alcohol at the same time made all of my feelings raw. I realized I had to deal with my feelings. I found a great EMDR [Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing] therapist … and that really helped me dig into a lot of what I was dealing with [and address in the book].

You’ve said life at 65 feels different. What’s the best part of this chapter?

Not caring what someone thinks of me. Not caring about their opinion. If it’s constructive criticism, I’m always willing to learn something. But if someone has something negative to say to me that doesn’t feel true or honest to me, it’s like, yeah, whatever. That’s for you. That’s a you thing.

Do you think of yourself as famous?

I still don’t act like I’m famous because I don’t feel famous. I still go to the grocery store. I need to pick out my fruit and my veggies myself. I pick up my laundry. I clean my cats’ litter boxes. I have a normal life. I don’t feel famous except when I see photographers hiding behind a bush, and then it feels weird.