Valerie Bertinelli Explains Why Betty White Is Always with Her

Valerie Bertinelli is mourning the loss of her “Hot In Cleveland” co-star Betty White.

“Extra’s” Cheslie Kryst spoke with Bertinelli, who is promoting her new memoir “Enough Already.”

Monday would have been Betty’s 100th birthday. As for how she celebrated, Valerie shared, “Well, I went to bed at 6 o’clock because I had to get up at 3. So I wanted to have a vodka on the rocks with a hot dog, so I’ll be doing that in her honor tonight.”

She continued, “I think about her all the time. I mean, whenever I look at my animals, she named two of my pets, so she’s just she’s always around me, always. You know, it’s always, like, harder for us because we’re left behind, but I’m so happy for her because I know she’s with [husband] Allen [Ludden]. I know she’s with all the animals that went before her. I know she is in literal heaven. She absolutely is.”

Valerie’s first husband, Eddie Van Halen, passed away last year from cancer. As for what question she would ask Eddie if she had a chance to, Valerie answered, “How about our kid getting that Grammy nomination?”

Their son Wolfgang was nominated for Best Rock Song for “Distance,” a tribute to his late father.

Bertinelli elaborated, “I would want to celebrate it with him. There’s nobody else I want to celebrate it with besides Wolfie, obviously.”

Valerie also opened up about her “biggest regret” with Eddie. She admitted, “I just I wish that I hadn’t been so nervous to go over there a lot during the last year of his life. He was alone in that big house and I wish that I had gone over there more to be with him. And I know we tried and we tried, but with COVID, it made it more challenging, and that’s my biggest regret that I didn’t spend more time with him, because he was lonely.”

Valerie was by Eddie’s side for his last moments, though. She revealed, “I didn’t know those would be my last words to him. After we told each other we love each other and we’re holding him, we said, ‘We’ll see you tomorrow,’ and tomorrow never came because he had a massive stroke that night. He never woke up from that, and a couple days later, he was gone.”

She continued, “That was really hard, and if I can give any small bit of wisdom to anybody, it’s to treat someone like you’re never going to see them again and let them know how you feel about them because you just don’t you just don’t know when, when is going to be the last time that you see them.”

While Valerie has called Eddie her “soul mate” in the past, does she think she’ll meet another soul mate in life? Valerie said, “I can tell you what, two things that I’m never going to do: I’m never going to get married and I’m never going to go on a restrictive diet again. Life’s too short. Life’s too short. I still care about what I put into my body. I’m going to you know, eat more fruits and more vegetables. I’m going to drink less alcohol, eat less sugar, move my body, but I’m not going to care about what the scale says.”

She emphasized, “I don’t want to be here 10 years from now and look back… so bored, thinking you’re fat. Just get over yourself. Just enjoy your life, just enjoy it! I just don’t want to miss out on life any longer. It’s too short.”

Her tell-all book focuses on how she has learned to live on her own terms. She explained, “All the self-loathing, the self-doubt, the lie that I am unlovable if I am heavy… Enough already… I’m already enough. It’s okay. Mistakes, flaws, and all, I am enough.”