Valerie Bertinelli admittedly had some hard times over the years with ex-husband Eddie Van Halen as a young married couple, but she was glad they were able to put that behind them before the legendary rock guitarist's death.
"We went through a lot of hell as well," Bertinelli told Hoda Kotb on TODAY Tuesday. "We weren’t really good to each other at a lot of points in our lives because we met so young and were very immature. But I’m so happy that we were able to come to a beautiful place by the end of his life. I wish he was still here."
Bertinelli, 61, writes about her journey to acceptance and openness, the heartbreaking final moments with Van Halen before his death, and her recent separation from her second husband in her new book, “Enough Already: Learning to Love the Way I Am Today.” The book went on sale Tuesday.
The Food Network host and former "One Day at a Time" star writes about saying goodbye to Van Halen, her husband from 1981-2007, when the legendary rock guitarist died at 65 in October 2020 from cancer.
She and their son, Wolfgang, 30, were by his side in his final moments.
“I love you are the last words Ed says to Wolfie and me and they are the last words we say to him before he stops breathing," Bertinelli writes in her new book.
Despite their divorce, the couple remained close.
"The love we have always had for each other proved stronger and more resilient than anything else," she writes. "We chose to remain friends and family.”
Their bond transcended their troubles over the years and produced their son, who has followed in his father's footsteps to becoming a Grammy-nominated musician himself.
"I think soul mates, I think we have more than just one," Bertinelli said on TODAY. "I think that partly Wolfie is a soul mate of mine. When I think of soul mate, I think of souls that come here to experience this life on Earth together again and get to a higher place. I definitely, definitely know that was part of Ed. I loved his soul deeply."
Bertinelli also opens up about the end of her second marriage to Tom Vitale. She filed for legal separation from her husband of 11 years in November.
"I also want to be gentle and caring, and not just rip off a Band-Aid," she said. "I like to pull it off gently. But I think there is definitely power and peace in changing your narrative and changing the way that you can look at your life. I know it is for me. When I changed the way I looked at my life and stopped beating myself up most of the time, there is power in that and peace."
The actor also joined the entertainment community in mourning the loss of beloved actor Betty White, who died at 99 last month. Bertinelli starred with White in “Hot in Cleveland,” the hit TV Land sitcom that ran from 2010 to 2015.
"She was magical," Bertinelli said. "There's no other way to explain that lovely woman, and she is the one that taught me so much about gratitude. Betty walked in gratitude, and she was grateful for every moment of her life, for every thing that happened to her.
"She glowed. She was otherworldly. She was an angel here on Earth, for sure."