Eddie Van Halen autopsy special slammed by his son Wolfgang and Valerie Bertinelli
By Lisa Respers France, CNN
A planned TV special that purports to examine the final hours of the life of legendary guitarist Eddie Van Halen is being slammed by some of his loved ones.
Van Halen, who died in 2020 at the age of 65 after battling cancer, is the subject of an episode of the Reelz docuseries, “Autopsy: The Last Hours Of…”
The show’s site notes his cause of death and reads, “But if caught early, Eddie’s disease had reasonable survival rates.”
“So what happened?,” the site reads. “World renowned forensic pathologist, Dr. Michael Hunter needs to analyse every detail of Eddie Van Halen’s life in order to piece together what else may have been going on in his body, ultimately leading to his untimely death.”
His son, Wolfgang Van Halen, tweeted that the episode is “disgusting trying to glamorize someone’s death from cancer. Pathetic and heartless.”
The late rocker’s former wife, actress and cookbook author Valerie Bertinelli, also weighed in on Twitter.
“Good Christ this is disgusting,” she tweeted.
She and the elder Van Halen were married from 1981 to 2007.
“Autopsy: The Last Hours of… responsibly explores the circumstances of the passing of well known and genuinely loved celebrities who the public cares about immensely,” Reelz said in a statement to CNN.
“The REELZ series generates much feedback from our viewers ranging from medical professionals who praise its scientific accuracy, fans who tell us it provides closure or that they have become more proactive for the benefit of their health and many who gain helpful perspective of health issues that might not otherwise receive attention like Karen Carpenter who brought anorexia into the public consciousness, Prince whose passing focused attention on the opioid epidemic and Luke Perry whose passing renewed attention to strokes that affect people of all ages,” the statement went on to read.
The Eddie Van Halen episode is set to air on Sunday.
The-CNN-Wire
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