Valerie Bertinelli Says Eddie Van Halen’s Pain Made Him Vulnerable In The End

Late Van Halen guitarist Eddie Van Halen’s ex-wife and actress Valeri Bertinelli recently spoke about the musician in an interview with Yahoo. She talked about the rock and roll life she lived with him and mentioned his drug abuse, which eventually ended up being a way of escaping his pain.

Valerie Bertinelli is a well-known actress who starred in ‘Hot in Cleveland’ and was nominated for several Grammy and Emmy Awards. She married Eddie in 1981, but the couple decided to split up in 2001, which eventually ended with a divorce in 2007. Around that time, Eddie was diagnosed with oral cancer, but he was reluctant to quit smoking and using drugs.

Though Valerie couldn’t stick around for him during that time as his wife, Eddie managed to beat oral cancer despite losing most of his tongue in 2002. After successfully beating cancer for the first time, he was unfortunately diagnosed with throat cancer around 2014 and was hospitalized in 2019. He passed away due to a stroke in 2020, surrounded by his wife Janie, ex-wife Valerie and son Wolfgang in his last moments.

In a recent interview, Valerie talked about how Eddie Van Halen’s drug and alcohol abuse was a way to deal with his pain near the end of his life. She stated that he was very vulnerable at the time and called herself immature for not being able to help him when she first saw the signs of substance abuse in their 20s. However, she noted that they were both very young and couldn’t have known better at that point.

Valerie’s statement about Eddie’s vulnerability follows:

“It took a very, very long time for him to just not use it to deal with his pain. Near the end of his life, his pain was incredibly raw, and he was very vulnerable about it. I’m grateful that he was able to make amends with so many people that he loved and knew that he didn’t treat as well as he would have liked to because his heart was just so kind and so sweet. I was too immature, and I was too into my own world to know how to help. I was a kid. We were 20 when I got married. That’s insane.”

The couple had a child, Wolfgang Van Halen, who was also a member of Van Halen, taking over the bass duties in the band’s final years. After Van Halen disbanded due to losing a precious member, Wolfgang continued on his rock and roll journey with Mammoth WVH and is currently on tour with his band.