Valerie Bertinelli, the actress who rose to fame in the mid-70s playing Barbara Cooper on CBS’s hit sitcom “One Day at a Time,” has celebrated a milestone in her sobriety journey.
“Six months. No alcohol,” the 64-year-old television personality shared in a July 1 Instagram post alongside a picture of herself.
In a subsequent post on July 2, Ms. Bertinelli listed some of the other changes she is focused on making in her life.
“I’ve always been really good at beating myself up about my past and how I could’ve done better. I became a master at judging myself. Judge, jury, and executioner. I don’t wanna do that anymore,” she captioned a picture of a quote by Synanon founder Charles Dederich, which reads: “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.”
“I want to lead a full authentic life, with my heart open to experiencing everything. No more judging. Accepting who I am, flaws and all. What makes me, me,” she continued.
In her lengthy message, Ms. Bertinelli addressed the downfalls of unhealthy coping mechanisms, such as binge eating and drinking excessively “to numb/avoid the pain.”
“When we don’t allow ourselves to feel the pain, we can’t allow ourselves to get to the other side to where we can feel the joy,” she candidly offered. “I believe there is always joy and relief on the other side. At some point, we just have to slay that dragon and trust that joy will meet us there because the way we’ve been going about it just isn’t working anymore.”
Ms. Bertinelli concluded her post by encouraging her fans and followers to continue sharing their personal struggles.
“It’s been inspiring,” she wrote. “When we work together and share our stories, we can lift each other up. Let’s keep inspiring each other.”
Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms
In addition to using alcohol to mask her pain, Ms. Bertinelli—who finalized her divorce from businessman Tom Vitale in November 2022 after 11 years of marriage—has previously discussed her battle with emotional eating.
During a January 2020 segment on the “Today” show, the Golden Globe-winning actress admitted that she used “food as a way to not feel the sadness,” according to People.
However, she noted that she no longer wanted to “get through the hard times” by eating her pain away.
“I want to get through the hard times by leaning on people,” she shared. “I need to feel the feelings and get to the other side and not use food to suppress the feelings.”
Healing Journey
On the heels of her sobriety commitment, the Food Network star—who has appeared in several of the network’s cooking shows, including “Valerie’s Home Cooking”—took to social media early this summer to elaborate on her decision to embark on her healing journey.
“I wanted my life to be different than it was and I wanted to be a whole and emotionally healthy human being. Being vulnerable and authentic are two things I thought I had really worked on and accomplished and I really thought I had conquered most of my demons,” she wrote in a June 25 Instagram post.
Ms. Bertinelli chronicled many of the hardships she has had to overcome in her life in her memoir, “Enough Already: Learning to Love the Way I Am Today,” released in January 2022. The book explores the loss of her father, who died in 2016, and her mother, who passed away in 2019, and the struggles she faced in her marriage to the late rock legend Eddie Van Halen, who died in October 2020 at the age of 65 after a years-long battle with cancer. The former couple, who were married from 1981 to 2007, shared a son, musician Wolfgang Van Halen, born in 1991.
“Through mourning the loss of her parents, discovering more about her family’s past, and realizing how short life really is when she and her son lost Eddie, Valerie finally said, ‘Enough already!’ to a lifelong battle with the scale and found a new path forward to joy and connection,” according to a synopsis.
In April 2024, the New York Times bestselling author of “One Dish at a Time” (2012) and “Valerie’s Home Cooking” (2017), among many others, released her latest cookbook, “Indulge: Delicious and Decadent Dishes to Enjoy and Share.” According to its summary, the book touches on Ms. Bertinelli’s newfound joy in “learning how to enjoy the pure pleasure of being alive—starting in the kitchen.”
A month before the release of her cookbook, the actress took to Instagram to reflect on the progress she has made over the years.
“I … love my life right now. Not something I ever thought I’d say two years ago,” she wrote.
“And hey, thank you all for staying on this ride with me,” the actress added. “Sticking with me through the tears to get to the joy on the other side.”