Valerie Bertinelli moves on with new boyfriend after dramatic divorce from ex-husband Tom Vitale
Valerie Bertinelli has found love again.
Bertinelli, 63, recently shared that she's in a new relationship, and although she didn't give the man's name, she did say that she feels "incredibly blessed and lucky to have met him."
The actress, who was married to musician Eddie Van Halen from 1981 to 2007 and businessman Tom Vitale from 2011 to 2022, told USA Today that she's "incredibly grateful" for her new boyfriend.
"It’s unlike any relationship that I’ve ever experienced with a man," she explained, saying that she "wasn't expecting" to get into a relationship after her last divorce was finalized.
She continued, "He was not on my radar. I was going to die with my six cats and my dog and be incredibly happy doing it. So this came out of left field, and I’m grateful it did. He’s very special."
Bertinelli shared a video to her Instagram story earlier this week in which she vaguely hinted at the relationship – she reposted an old video that showed her claiming that she wouldn't date again, and in the new version, she added, "This didn't age well."
"What was I doing?" she asked in her new interview. "I just can’t help it. When I’m flipping happy, it’s all over me, and he’s one of the main reasons. I really want women and men to take away that it’s the work that you do (on yourself) that can lead you to meeting someone like I’ve been lucky enough to meet right now. This would not have happened three years ago, four years ago, last year ― it wouldn’t have. And I feel incredibly lucky to have met him and made a connection with him."
VALERIE BERTINELLI REFLECTS ON BEING CALLED ‘FAT AND LAZY’ THROUGH TEXTS AMID HEALING FROM DIVORCE
The "Hot in Cleveland" star has spoken out about the difficulties she had in her marriage to Vitale several times, even telling Hoda Kotb in a 2022 interview on the "Today" show that she was done with love.
"I am gonna be more than happy to be happily divorced and spend the rest of my life alone," she said. "I'll be happy that way. Well, with my six cats and my dog and my son, and hopefully one day grandchildren."
When she was asked if she'd look for love again, Bertinelli responded, "Oh God, no."
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"Because of the challenges that I'm going through right now, because divorce sucks, I can't imagine ever trusting anyone again to let into my life. So I have some trust issues that I'm sure I'm going to have to get past."
Later that year, when the divorce was finalized, she called herself "happily divorced," and she called the day her marriage was officially over the "second best day of [her] life," the first presumably being the day her only child, son Wolfgang Van Halen, was born.
On the "Out Comes The Sun" podcast, Bertinelli touched on the split from Vitale again, saying, "I think because that divorce was so wicked, and it's really brought me to my knees, but I think of that as a gift because I get to learn so much about myself through this."
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She continued, "I get to learn so much about my character. I get to learn so much about my healing. I get to talk to my inner child more, so this wicked part of my life is actually very healing for me."
"I get to choose every day whether I'm thankful and in gratitude or whether I just want to be b----- and just scream. And I choose to be grateful and be thankful, because I also get to learn so much."
Fox News Digital's Lauryn Overhultz contributed to this report.