The actress Valerie Bertinelli has filed for legal separation from her husband, Tom Vitale after 11 years of being married. Bertinelli filed on Wednesday, the day before America’s Thanksgiving Day holiday in Los Angeles citing ‘irreconcilable differences’ as the reason for their split as per the court documents obtained by TODAY.
The pair do not share any children though they were married for almost 11 years and the actress has requested that neither of them receive spousal support going forward. It seems they have a fairly clean break as they had a prenuptial agreement in place to handle the division of assets.
Valerie Bertinelli Married Life
The actress met her ex-husband Eddie Van Helen when her brothers invited her to a Van Halen show and got introduced to each other backstage. Van Hale’s manager recalled how cute they both were together. He said, “They were both clearly nervous and somewhat reticent. In the presence of this young woman, the rock star façade melted away and Valerie was stammering and blushing like a schoolgirl in the presence of Eddie.”
After a few months, they set a wedding date and got married in 1981 with the groom drunk on his wedding day. According to Country living reports, the actress held back her groom’s hair back in her wedding dress as he threw up getting too drunk. The actress has shared about her wedding day saying, “As we filled out the forms at home, we each held a little vial of cocaine. Now, if you ask me, those are not two people who should be making decisions about the rest of their lives.”
However, the couple went their own ways in 2001 and the actress told Oprah, “He had his responsibilities of what he had to do and I had my responsibilities. And we thought if you just live in the same house there would be a connection, but no.”
She added, “One of the many reasons that Ed and I split up is to give Wolfie a better vision of what two people who are supposedly in love treat each other like. Ed and I weren’t treating each other like two people that loved each other and that’s what Wolfie was seeing.”
After their divorce, the two remained good friends attending each other’s wedding and having fun. The rock star died in October 2020 due to a battle with cancer at the age of 65. At the time, the actress paid tribute to him 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.”
Their son, Wolfie took to his Instagram to share his feelings about his father’s death writing, “ I’ve had so many dreams lately where Pop and I are just doing normal things and then I realize it’s a dream, stop whatever I'm doing and hug him for as long as I can until I wake up.”
The actress Bertinelli met her husband Tom Vitale in 2004 and got engaged in 2010. According to AARP magazine, the two met through the actress’s brother Patrick and Tom said, “Val and I were coming from a tough time and wanting to move on but didn’t want to trust anyone.”
The 60-year-old actress celebrated her only son Wolfgang Van Halen’s 30th birthday on Instagram sharing a video montage of him through years and wrote, “Happy birthday @wolfvanhalen I’m so ridiculously proud of the man you are. You've been through so much more and you are still kind, thoughtful, thankful, and gracious with a wicked, sarcastic sense of humor.” The actress shared, “I know your father agrees that the happiest day of our lives was the day you were born. I love you to the moon and back, sweet boy...”
Net Worth Of Bertinelli
Valerie Bertinelli has an estimated net worth of $20 million from her various acting roles on Television shows for over 30 years. She was born in 1960 in Wilmington and had three brothers. And at the age of 15, she was cast as Barbara Cooper in the sitcom One Day at a Time which had nine seasons. Her most notable works are Battle of the Network Stars III (1977), The Hardy Boys (1978), C.H.O.M.P.S. (1979), Fridays (1981-1982), Yong Love, First Love (1979), The Princess and the Cabbie (1981), I was a Mail Order Bride (1984), The Seduction of Gina (1984), Shattered Vows (1984), Silent Witness (1985), Ordinary Heroes (1986), Rockabye (1986), Taken Away (1989) and many others.
The actress has won many nominations and awards including three Golden Globes and Daytime Emmy Awards. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2012. The actress bought a 5,200 square foot home in the Hollywood Hils in 2002 after her separation from the late rock star Eddie Van Halen. The house cost her $2.25 million which has 5 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms.