Valerie Bertinelli has an important message for anyone who has ever struggled with their weight.
In a new interview with The Washington Post, the actor opens up about her struggles with emotional eating and her newfound attitude about body image.
“What wasn’t working for me was living my life by a number,” the 63-year-old told the publication. “Because no matter what that number was, it wasn’t going to be good enough.”
After years of criticizing herself over her weight, Bertinelli explained that something changed in her mindset when she turned 60. At this point, she began to realize how she had fallen into a pattern of emotional eating.
“And if I try to push it away, shove it away, eat it away, the feeling’s not going to go anywhere,” she said while reflecting on that period of her life. “It’s going to pop up again.”
When Bertinelli realized that she'd been neglecting her health, she finally understood that she had to get to the root of why she was using food to cope with her emotions.
“It’s not the food that’s bad for us,” she said. “It’s how, or why, we’re eating it. If we’re eating it unconsciously, if we’re eating it to soothe an emotion.”
This is hardly the first time Bertinelli has spoken openly about her body image struggles. Earlier this year, the star commented on unrealistic body standards as she posted a few throwback photos of herself rocking a bikini.
“2014 #tbt. This is a 150lb body on a 5’4 frame. I don’t weigh myself anymore because this is considered overweight by whose standards I don’t know. It’s stupid and I believed them for far too long,” she captioned the post. “I now, finally, know that I am a kind, considerate, funny, thoughtful woman.”
In October 2023, Bertinelli urged her followers to understand that their self worth is not connected to their weight.
“I have done so much emotional and mental work to recover from years of pretending everything was OK when it wasn’t,” she said in a video. “Health is not a body size. Health is not the number you see on the scale. Your worth as a human being isn’t dictated by your body. I thought I was fat the last time I wore these clothes.”
“I’ve never felt more beautiful, more at peace, more mentally and emotionally stable than I do today, and I’m wearing my ‘fat clothes,’” she continued. “That’s f---ed up.”
Bertinelli has always been open about matters relating to weight loss and body image, but it hasn't always been easy. Last year, the star asked her Instagram followers to stop asking her for diet advice and called herself a “perpetual people pleaser.”
“So please don’t come to me for diet advice. I have failed more times than I have succeeded. Releasing weight is a nice side effect for sure, but this journey has to be, for me, much more than that this time," she wrote.
Bertinelli has certainly been on a powerful personal journey, and she now has someone special to share her life with: a new boyfriend. After her second marriage ended, the star wasn't exactly eager to fall for someone else, but she just told People that she's "in love" with an unidentified man.
After starting off as friends, things turned romantic earlier this year.
“It feels incredibly right,” she said. “I found joy first, and then a man entered my life.”