Valerie Bertinelli Files to Divorce Tom Vitale Months After Announcing Separation

Valerie Bertinelli has officially filed to divorce estranged husband Tom Vitale after first announcing their separation in November 2021. The Food Network host and ex-wife of the late Eddie Van Halen cited “irreconcilable differences” as the reason for the split in court documents filed to the Los Angeles Superior Court of California on May 12 and obtained by Entertainment Tonight.

The Hot in Cleveland star married Vitale, a financial planner, in January 2011 after being introduced by Bertinelli’s brother back in 2004. The two did not share any children and did have a prenuptial agreement in order, according to court documents. Bertinelli is mother to Wolfgang Van Halen, 31, with her rocker ex, while Vitale is father to four children from a previous marriage.  

In November 2021, the couple announced they had gone their separate ways, citing the date of separation as almost two years prior in December 2019. In 2010, Bertinelli and Vitale spoke to AARP about their relationship. “Val and I were coming from a tough time and wanting to move on but didn’t want to trust anyone,” Vitale said at the time. “We just understood each other completely. My family is her family. It wasn’t love at first sight; it was family at first sight.”

Bertinelli revealed that she initially didn’t want to get married again following her divorce from Van Halen in 2007. “After Ed and I separated, I thought, ‘I’ll finish raising my son, and I’ll go away, have about 40 cats, and just get nice and fat.’ I thought I would be alone for the rest of my life because I didn’t want the responsibility,” Bertinelli told the magazine. “Relationships are too hard.”

In October 2020, Van Halen’s family announced he had died following an arduous cancer battle at the age of 65. Bertinelli said of her ex on social media, “We had some very difficult, very challenging times, but we had some beautiful times too. And the lovely thing about grief – the gift that it gives you – is that it’s so much easier to remember the beautiful moments than the challenging and the difficult moments that you have with that person.”