This article explores the intertwined stories of Eddie Van Halen and Valerie Bertinelli, focusing on their individual struggles with weight, body image, and health, set against the backdrop of their tumultuous marriage and rock star lifestyle.
Valerie Bertinelli's Struggle with Body Image and Weight
Valerie Bertinelli, known for her role in "One Day at a Time," has openly discussed her lifelong battle with body image. Even during her sitcom fame, she felt insecure, comparing herself to her co-star Mackenzie Phillips. "She's always been thin, and I called my hips 'childbearing hips,'" Valerie says. "I felt like a fat thing next to her. I look back and want to shake that little girl and say, 'Shut up.'"
Early Attempts at Weight Loss
In her quest to lose weight, Valerie experimented with various methods, including taking Black Beauties. However, she discontinued their use due to the unpleasant side effects, stating, "But I started hating the shaking I felt all the time." More than that, Valerie says she couldn't stand to starve herself. "I love food so much," she says.
Marriage to Eddie Van Halen and Lifestyle Challenges
Valerie's marriage to rock star Eddie Van Halen presented unique challenges. She describes trying to keep up with his demanding lifestyle, "The week off I would destroy my body trying to stay up with him," she says. The glamorous image of being a rock star's wife belied the internal struggles within their marriage.
Emotional Eating and Post-Divorce Weight Gain
Following her separation from Eddie in October 2001 and divorce in 2007, Valerie turned to food for comfort. "They were my Prozac," she says about jalepeño poppers. "Those were some of the darkest days of my life, and I was eating my way through them." This emotional eating led to significant weight gain.
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The Turning Point: A Moment of Self-Realization
Valerie's turning point came while watching herself in a Hallmark Channel movie. "I felt the urge to run into my room and cry. The sight of myself was too much for me to tolerate," she says. This prompted her to visualize the person she wanted to be, both inside and out. "There's the weight you see on the scale every morning, and then there's the weight you carry around inside," she says. "One makes you look miserable. The other makes you feel miserable."
Finding Accountability and Losing the Weight
Valerie sought accountability to help her achieve her weight loss goals. "[I thought] this might be just what I need to kick myself in the butt and be accountable because I'm certainly not accountable to myself," she says. "If I'm accountable to other people, then maybe I can finally do this and change my life. And that's what happened." Ultimately, Valerie says, "I've lost my shame," Valerie says. "I've lost 40 pounds. But I don't know that it was the 40 pounds that kept me shameful.
Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle
Valerie now focuses on maintaining a healthy lifestyle. She keeps healthy snacks like hard-boiled eggs on hand and opts for sugar-free Jell-O with fat-free whipped cream when craving sweets. She also incorporates exercise into her routine, walking at least a mile with her boyfriend, Tom, while wearing weight vests.
Eddie Van Halen's Health Issues and Weight Fluctuations
While Eddie Van Halen was often perceived as naturally skinny with low body fat, his health journey was not without its challenges.
Early Lifestyle and Diet
Accounts suggest that Eddie, in his younger years, didn't prioritize healthy eating. There is the famous pic of Ed and Dave in front of a McDonald's, eating a burger with gloves on. When you're young you can survive on this crap with almost no repercussions. Some describe him as resembling a guitar-playing Bruce Lee in his early live stage shots. It’s pretty easy to be cut up when you’re in your 20s and doing blow all day long.
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Weight Gain and Sobriety
Eddie Van Halen was kinda chubby in 1993. It is speculated that his weight gain in the mid-1990s may have been related to his sobriety. Didn't he sober-up around the 93-95' years? It's not uncommon for people to put on weight when they quit drinking.
Health Scares and Alternative Medicine
Later in life, Eddie faced serious health issues, including cancer. Some reports suggest he explored alternative medicine treatments.
Diverticulitis and the Master Cleanse Diet
According to the National Enquirer, the Van Halen guitarist's recently reported emergency surgery was complicated because of some painful-sounding (and rather frightening) side effects he suffered after embarking on the Master Cleanse diet. As Radar reports, the program "temporarily replaces food with a liquid consisting of water, fresh lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper" -- a concoction that apparently didn't sit well with Eddie's gullet. According to the Enquirer's sources, Eddie's "abdominal region was a disaster area" and the diet "touched off an explosion in his intestines." The Enquirer went on to quote a doctor (who, we hasten to add, did not treat Van Halen) as saying, "The stress of fad diets increases pressure on the colon, and if the person has diverticulitis there may be leakage from the bowel into the abdomen." As previously reported, Van Halen spent three weeks in the hospital following his surgery for diverticulitis, and he's expected to take up to six months to fully recover.
Marriage, Infidelity, and Divorce
Valerie and Eddie's marriage, while seemingly glamorous from the outside, was fraught with difficulties. Valerie admits to trying to keep up with Eddie's rocker lifestyle. "I'm the wife of this amazing musician, and lots of girls want him, and I got him," she says. On the inside, Valerie says her marriage was sad-she and Eddie didn't connect. "He had his responsibilities of what he had to do, and I had my responsibilities," she says.
Infidelity and the Breaking Point
Both Valerie and Eddie were unfaithful during their marriage. As Valerie and Eddie's tumultuous marriage continued, she says she discovered Eddie was cheating on her. "I heard him on the phone talking with [someone who], I assume, was a woman, and he was talking about how he just wanted out of the marriage," she says. Years later, Valerie says she received additional proof of his infidelities when she says she got a phone call from an angry man who said his wife was cheating on him with Eddie. "When I got off, I was crying but I was like, 'I can't believe I just had that conversation,'" she says. When she was 25, Valerie says she cheated on Eddie. "I was infatuated with the drummer of this band [who] was friends of my brother," she says. "I just wanted somebody to touch me and love me. And I wasn't getting it at home. Now, that's not an excuse. What I should have done is dealt with the problems in our marriage, separated, and then if I want to go do something, I can. After 20 years of marriage and the birth of their son, Wolfgang, Valerie and Eddie separated in October 2001 and divorced in 2007.
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Impact on Wolfgang
"One of the many reasons that Ed and I split up is to give Wolfie a better vision of what two people who are supposedly in love treat each other like. Ed and I weren't treating each other like two people that loved each other, and that's what Wolfie was seeing," Valerie says.