Valerie Bertinelli Drops F-Bomb Live on the ‘Today’ Show

Valerie Bertinelli is apologizing for letting loose a few accidental curse words live on the airwaves this week.

The One Day at a Time star appeared on Today With Jenna & Sheinelle, the Today show’s fourth hour show hosted by Jenna Bush Hager and Sheinelle Jones, on Thursday to promote her new Lifetime movie Love Again. In the film, she plays a woman who forms a new connection after her husband is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.

It was during her passionate discussion of her character’s emotions that she first slipped up. After host Jenna Bush Hager asked Bertinelli if she brought her own experiences with grief into the role, Bertinelli said she did and explained how much she identified with her character.

“I did,” Bertinelli said. “It was incredibly therapeutic because I had been holding onto a lot of this grief that I had just experienced over the last few years, even. As anybody who’s ever been through it, there’s not a lot of places to put it sometimes, and you just have to carry on and jus tput your smile on your face and go do your job. And sometimes, you just want to fall apart, and I think you can see that happen to Caroline in this movie, where she’s just trying to hold it together.”

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Saying she identified “wholeheartedly” with her character, she explained, “I’m one of those people that no matter what I’m going through, I will put that happy face on so that I don’t bring my s— to other people.”

The actress quickly corrected herself, “bring my stuff to other people. … I’m so terrible! I’m so sorry!” she said.

Bush Hager said all was well, however. “We’re chatting with girlfriends! It comes up.”

Later, Bertinelli, who was married to Eddie Van Halen from 1981 to 2007 and to Tom Vitale from 2011 to 2022, accidentally dropped an f-bomb while discussing potential future romantic relationships.

“There’s something about an intimate love with a partner, and I haven’t had a partner in over a decade, at least, where I thought we could become partners. So, I do miss that,” she said. “But then, there’s another part of me that’s like, ‘I am so independent, and I can do everything on my own, so leave me the f— alone.’”

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“Oops, that’s a second one!” Bush Hager pointed out. Bertinelli again apologized. “Geez Louise! I’ll never be invited back again! I’m sorry! God, what is wrong with me?”

“It’s the 66-year-old disease where you just don’t care what comes out of your mouth. I apologize to everybody out there. I’m sorry,” she joked.

The former Food Network host did stick around for a cooking segment. “I’m gonna cook for you, and I’ll make it all up to you,” Bertinelli assured her hosts.