Valerie Bertinelli Remembers Late Ex-Husband Eddie Van Halen Five Years After His Death

Valerie Bertinelli is remembering late ex-husband Eddie Van Halen nearly five years after the Van Halen rocker’s death due to cancer at 65.

The One Day at a Time actress, 65, took to Instagram on Aug. 14 with a throwback photo with her ex as she reflected on his “loud absence” in her life.

“Some days I really do miss you,” Bertinelli began. “There will always be a loud absence in these gratifying sideline years.”

She continued of the former couple’s 34-year-old son, Wolfgang Van Halen, “Who do I yap to when there was really only one person I could talk to about Wolfie the way that we did? The pride we both felt. Still feel.”

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A post shared by Valerie Bertinelli (@wolfiesmom)

“I’m grateful for where we landed,” the Food Network personality added. “Through the ups and the downs to still alight where we did is a blessing.”

Gushing over her son’s work as a professional musician, Bertinelli went on, “You’d be so proud of Wolf. I know we’d be screaming together in the stands watching him on stage. Seeing who could whistle the loudest. I will never not miss being able to experience that with you.”

Bertinelli was married to the legendary guitarist from 1981 to 2007. Eddie would go on to tie the knot with his second wife, Janie Liszewski, in 2009, and the two would go on to be married until his death from throat cancer in 2020. Bertinelli would also find love again, as she was married to Tom Vitale from 2011 until their 2022 divorce.

In May 2024, the Hot in Cleveland star wrote on Instagram that she felt she had once turned her relationship with Eddie “into some sort of fantasy, soulmate recreation of history,” despite the rapid decline of their romance due to her ex’s substance use and infidelity.

“Nothing that makes you feel loved and wanted and cared for. Nothing that would scream soulmate, that’s for sure,” she wrote at the time. “But after Ed died, I was more than willing to put myself in the grieving widow category for a man that I hadn’t lived with for 20 years.”

She continued, “What we had together was this beautiful son that we both unconditionally loved,” adding, “That’s what I got out of that marriage was Wolfie, the best thing that ever happened to me. Not a soulmate.”