Valerie Bertinelli on Oprah
Jenny Craig's New Spokesperson Speaks Out About Life, Weight Loss
Interview part of publicity tour for her new book "Losing It"
She was America’s sweetheart through the 1980s starring in One Day at a Time. But behind the scenes Valerie Bertinelli had low self image, didn’t think she was beautiful, and doubted her abilities.
On The Oprah Winfrey Show today Bertinelli discussed her marriage to rocker Eddie Van Halen, her infidelities, drug abuse, and her struggle to lose weight.
One of the more unexpected admissions came when Bertinelli recalled dating director Steven Spielberg in the early 1980s. She was 19 and dated him for several months. She stated matter-of-factly that they were sleeping together although he was much older and she found him intimidating. He took her to the Oscars. Then one night at his lavish home in Coldwater Canyon as she prepared pasta, he stopped her from chopping garlic. “‘Oh no, no, no, garlic,’ he said,” Valerie told Oprah. “Are you kidding me? I didn’t say it out loud but I’m thinking ‘I cannot be with a guy who’s not going to eat garlic.’ So that was the end of Steven,” she laughed, adding, “He was ready to get rid of me.”
The Spielberg anecdote was part of a wide-ranging conversation with Oprah the former teen star had on the occasion of the release of her book “Losing It: And Gaining My Life Back One Pound at a Time." “This book… it’s mainly me coming clean about myself and my life…” she said. “I can’t hide anymore…unless I verbal vomit it out then I don't feel like I'm going to change.”
Some of her admissions:
Love at First Sight with Eddie Van Halen
She met Van Halen backstage one night in 1980 after the band’s concert. The sparks flew right away. He called her three days later and after one date they were inseparable. She said he didn’t want to sleep with her right away although she was ready. He wanted to talk to her father first. “He was the good one. I was the bad one.”
On preparing for her wedding: While filling out a questionnaire for the priest they each held a vial of cocaine. “Those aren’t two people who should be making decisions about the rest of their lives. Our wedding night… was typical. I passed out on the bed in my gown and Ed fell asleep in the bathroom.”
On divorce: “As much as in love as we were [and] as much as we love each other now, we just don’t know how to be kind to one other…” After 20 years of marriage, the pair separated in 2001 and divorced in 2007. They have a teenaged son, Wolfgang.
Young Bertinelli Didn't Feel Beautiful
On her weight: She looked at pictures of herself as a 20-year-old: “I want to say you were beautiful young woman. I felt like a big old fat thing... I look at me now back then and I want to shake that little girl and say, shut up you’re a beautiful, young woman and I thought I was ugly. Stupid, I know I’d do anything to have that hair again because this isn’t mine,” she said gesturing to her extensions and laughing. She recalled how her brother gave her “Black Beauties” aka amphetamines, to help control her appetite. She used the drugs for a few months but quit because they made her shake so much.
Now a spokesperson for Jenny Craig, Bertinelli has lost 40 lbs.
