Valerie Bertinelli clapped back at her “haters” after she honored her late ex-husband, Eddie Van Halen, on the sixth anniversary of his death.
On Tuesday, the “One Day at a Time” actress shared a throwback photo of the couple in the car, writing, “Photos may fade, like old photos do, but not the memories and never the love.”
In a follow-up video addressed to her followers, Bertinelli, 66, explained that she always gets “pushback” when she posts a picture with the Van Halen musician, whom she was married to from 1981 to 2007.
“It used to really bother me,” she said. “It does not, not anymore. Not any longer, because I learned a lot.”
Bertinelli vented that her online critics don’t outright tell her she’s “not allowed to love your ex-husband,” but instead they “berate you and berate you for months, make you think you’re crazy until you finally say, ‘OK, fine, I don’t love him.’”
“They will never say, ‘Take that picture down, the one of your ex-husband along with you and your son in better days,’” she continued. “But they say that you’re obsessed, say all kinds of f—ed up s–t until you take the picture down.”
The former Food Network star said she’s “learned a lot” over the years, noting that Eddie — with whom she welcomed son Wolfgang in 1991 — still holds “a big piece” of her heart.
“And, if I ever fall in love again, I’ll make room in my heart for that person, without it touching the love I have for Ed, my son, my daughter-in-law, all the people that I love,” she went on. “Your heart opens up. Because your heart can hold a lot of love. All of our hearts can.”
“So you can’t bother me,” Bertinelli added. “I love Ed. Never stopped loving Ed. And my heart loves a lot. Don’t you wish yours could too?”
She captioned the clip, “Strap in haters, let’s go for a little ride.”
Wolfgang, 35, also paid tribute to his dad on Tuesday, posting a picture of Eddie with his baby son on his chest.
“6 years. It doesn’t get any easier,” Wolfgang wrote. “Love and miss you more than you could ever know, Pop.”
Eddie died in 2020 of a stroke at the age of 65. He was battling throat cancer for six years before his death.
Bertinelli met her late spouse in 1980 at a Van Halen concert and married the following year.
She filed for divorce in 2005 after four years of separation. They were officially divorced in 2007.
The rocker went on to marry Janie Liszewski in 2009, and Bertinelli attended their wedding.
The “Hot in Cleveland” star, for her part, married financial planner Tom Vitale in 2011. They split ten years later.
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