Valerie Bertinelli is opening up about what she’s learned in the wake of a series of personal and professional challenges over the past year.
The actor-turned-celebrity chef addressed what she described as “some of the most emotionally excruciating eight months of my life” in a lengthy post on Instagram last week, noting: “I don’t know that I would change any of it.”
“I started two jobs in different states and writing my new book all while going through some of the most emotionally excruciating eight months of my life. And I still got my exhausted, sleepless ass up in the morning, put on a good face, and showed up, when all I wanted to do was stay in bed and sob,” she wrote.
“This is not to say I feel sorry for myself because I don’t. Nobody has the market cornered on grief and heartache,” she continued. “People go through hard shit all the time. You just do what you have to do to get through what you have to get through.”
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Bertinelli, whose Hollywood résumé includes the CBS series “One Day at a Time” and “Touched by an Angel,” steered clear of specifics throughout her post. In 2024, she began hosting the Game Show Network’s “Bingo Blitz” and joined “The Drew Barrymore Show” as a lifestyle expert. She also unveiled a new cookbook, “Indulge.”
Reflecting on that trying period, however, Bertinelli said she realized how much she’s learned about “my strength, my weaknesses, my patience, my resilience, and my worth,” and hopes to encourage fans to look inward, too.
“If I could give you anything of value from my experience it would be this; don’t let the challenging days make you forget how far you’ve actually come. No matter what, always believe in your core self,” she wrote. “Do not allow the opinions of others or their experience with you, color what you think of yourself. You did your best with what you knew at the time.”
Bertinelli, the former host of “Valerie’s Home Cooking” and “Kids Baking Championship” on the Food Network, has generated headlines as of late after what some have perceived as a less-than-amicable split from lifestyle writer Mike Goodnough, whom she dated for about 10 months.
In April, Goodnough took a public swipe at his ex, accusing her of “lapsing into a place where she has been playing a one-woman tennis match thinking there is someone on the other side of the net” in a since-deleted Instagram post.
Later that month, Goodnough clarified his remarks somewhat, noting there were “external” obstacles that prevented him and Bertinelli from enjoying a more stable romance.
“The one thing that was never an issue was our love for each other,” he wrote on Instagram. “I loved Valerie more than I’ve ever loved someone in a relationship of choice. (My love for my son is a whole different thing).”
Describing his split from Bertinelli as “by far the most painful experience of my life,” Goodnough said he’d reached out to his ex in an effort to find “a way to a gentle parting rather than a closed door” but never heard back.
“No answer is an answer though. I accept it,” he wrote. “With that said, this chapter is now closed for me.”
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