Valerie Bertinelli is opening up about life without ex-husband Eddie Van Halen. The rocker died in October and since then Bertinelli says she has been having a tough time accepting the reality of the situation. In an appearance Monday on "Today," the former "One Day at a Time" actress spoke about how she has been coping over the last few months.
"I don’t know why I’m tearing up. You know when you hear voices and you see people that you feel the connection with and — you guys always make me tear up," she told Hoda Kotb when asked how she was doing. "It’s been rough. Very bittersweet."
Bertinelli said there were times when she believed he was still alive.
"It’s hard," she explained. "I’ve gone to text to text him a few dozen times. I was like, 'Oh, I can’t text him right now.'"
Bertinelli and Van Halen married in 1981 and divorced in 2007. They share son Wolfgang, 29. During the interview, Bertinelli said she and her son remained close despite the coronavirus pandemic, which has separated many families, and spent the holidays together.
"It was really quite magical," she said. "I wasn't able to spend his birthday with him because we went into shutdown in March. It was the first birthday in 29 years I didn't get to see him, so we really made an effort to keep ourselves healthy and safe and masked, and we were able to spend the holidays together. It's a very much-needed time for us."
Van Halen died on Oct. 6 at age 65. It was revealed that he had been battling cancer, but little else was known. Sources later told People that, while "everybody knew that he had cancer," many were not aware of how severe the disease was.
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