Valerie Bertinelli gets candid about her weight and mental health

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

Valerie Bertinelli says she hasn’t gotten on a scale since she wrote her memoir “Enough Already.”

The actress, writer and Food Network host got emotional talking about weight and body image during her appearance Thursday on “Today with Hoda & Jenna.”

“I’m looking at the monitor and trying not to judge myself too harshly right now because I know that I’m still holding on to this weight because it’s protecting me right now,” she said tearfully. “Because I’m going through a lot of challenges, a lot of heartbreak, a lot of crazy stuff going on in my life right now.”

Bertinelli recently filed for divorce from Tom Vitale, whom she married in 2011, and has been grieving the loss of her former husband, rocker Eddie Van Halen, who died of cancer in 2020.

She said it all began in 2016 when her father was dying and things have snowballed since then.

But Bertinelli said she knows it will get better.

“I know this weight is protecting me right now and when I get healthier internally and emotionally that weight will come off,” she said. “I know I’m treating my body better. I’m drinking less alcohol, I’m eating less sugar, I’m putting more vegetables in my body, but my body is doing this for a reason … because it needs protection.”

The former “One Day At A Time” star said she wasn’t sharing because she wanted people to feel sorry for her.

“I’m here to say that when we reach out to people that we love, or even that we don’t, strangers even… that we don’t have to feel so alone,” she said.

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