Van Halen guitarist Eddie Van Halen would have celebrated his 68th birthday on Thursday. His ex-wife, actress Valerie Bertinelli, and their son, musician Wolfgang Van Halen, honored the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, whom they both dearly miss. Van Halen died on Oct. 6, 2020 at 65.
Wolfgang, 31, shared an old photo on Instagram with his father, recalling happier days. “Happy 68th Birthday Pop,” Wolfgang wrote. “Wish I could give you a big hug and tell it to you in person. I love and miss you more than you could ever know.”
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Bertinelli, who uses “@wolfiesmom” as her Instagram handle, shared a pair of black and white photos she took with Van Halen before his death. The second photo included Wolfgang peeking in between his parents. The Food Network star added a simple white heart emoji in the caption.
Van Halen died after suffering a stroke at Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California. He was also diagnosed with throat cancer in 2019. After his death, Bertinelli revealed that he was diagnosed with lung cancer. Bertinelli and Van Halen were married from 1981 until 2007.
Van Halen married actress Janie Liszewski in 2009, and they were together until he died. “Happy Heavenly birthday my Peep,” Liszewski wrote on Instagram Thursday. She included a meme reading, “And some smiles never leave you the same.”
Bertinelli, 62, wrote about her relationship with Van Halen in her 2022 memoir Enough Already: Learning to Love the Way I Am Today. She referred to Van Halen as her “soul mate” and admitted to regretting that they were not closer before his death. She made sure to be by his side in his final moments. “‘I love you’ are the last words Ed says to Wolfie and me, and they are the last words we say to him before he stops breathing,” Berinelli wrote, notes PEOPLE.
When looking back on their relationship, Berinelli said it was tough to put into words. “I can’t explain the feelings Ed and I had for each other,” she wrote. “Who really knows, had he not died. I doubt it. I loved him more than I know how to explain and there’s nothing sexual about it. It was more than that. And Ed and I understood that. There is no greater love than what we had between the two of us and with that, we made this beautiful son.”
