Hollywood actress Valerie Bertinelli has dished the dirt in a new tell all book opening up about drug addiction, her marriage to rocker Eddie Van Halen and a secret fling with director Steven Spielberg. Bertinelli, 47, appeared with chat host Oprah Winfrey last night to talk about her wild past, which the star confesses to in her book 'Losing It: And Gaining My Life Back One Pound at a Time.'
Bertinelli was an American sweetheart for nine years when she appeared on the hit sitcom One Day at a Time. And when she was just 20 years old she fell for rock star guitarist Eddie Van Halen and married within months.
But Valerie - who has acted in numerous TV shows and feature films picking up two Golden Globes - admits her rock n roll life wasn't as glamorous as it appeared to be. When her 20-year marriage came to an end, Bertinelli says she hid from the world and consoled herself through food.
She has now gone public with her lifelong battle with weight and has taken over from Kirsty Allie as the U.S. spokeswoman for Jenny Craig.
Bertinelli told Oprah: "I've lost my shame. I've lost 40 pounds. But I don't know that it was the 40 pounds that kept me shameful. I was ashamed of myself, and that's why I gained 40 pounds."
The star says she now realises that she was nowhere near ready for marriage when she met rocker Van Halen in 1980. "We didn't know what we were doing," said Valerie."The priest we tapped to perform the ceremony gave us questionnaires so he could get to know us better and offer personal words. But as we filled out the forms at home we each held a little vial of cocaine - those aren't two people who should be making decisions about the rest of their lives.
"Our wedding night wasn't our best. I passed out on the bed in my gown and Ed fell asleep in the bathroom."
Bertinelli went on to tell Oprah that her marriage was characterized by the couple cheating on each other. "I cheated," she told Oprah. "Eddie claims to this day that I cheated first, but I don't know. I don't know about the timing.
"I heard him on the phone talking with someone who I assume was a woman, and he was talking about how he just wanted out of the marriage," she said. "He was done."
Despite their indiscretions the couple stayed together, but after 20 years of marriage and the birth of their son, Wolfgang, Valerie and Eddie separated in October 2001 and divorced in 2007. "One of the many reasons that Ed and I split up is to give Wolfie a better vision of what two people who are supposedly in love treat each other like. Ed and I weren't treating each other like two people that loved each other, and that's what Wolfie was seeing," Valerie said.
In another confession straight from the pages of her book Bertinelli, who born to Italian parents, admitted to Oprah that she split with E.T. director Steven Spielberg - because he didn't like garlic.
She said: "I went up to read for Raiders of the Lost Ark, which I was so wrong for, way too young for And the next day I got a call and some flowers he asked me out. We went out a few times and did more - we were sleeping together."
Bertinelli says in her book that she split with the blockbuster director when she discovered he hated garlic. "Even though the tabloids reported that Steven and I had a 'special love,' and 'we were talking about marriage,' we knew it was a fling," said Bertinelli. "We had too many differences, including age, career status and religion.
"One night, as we made pasta for dinner, I started to chop up garlic and Steven said, 'No. Stop. No garlic.' I stopped all right, but it wasn't because I took direction from him. I thought, 'Are you kidding me? I can't date a guy who won't eat garlic.'"
By Eric Munn, Feb 26 2008 © Copyright 2008 - Showbiz Spy
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