She didn’t get the part, but she did catch the eye of the director.
We went out a few times, um, and did more" (viaHuffPost).
The tabloids speculated about their relationship, but according to Bertinelli, it wasn’t that serious.
But the final nail in the coffin had to do with food.
I thought, ‘Are you kidding me?
I can’t date a guy who won’t eat garlic.'"
According to Bertinelli, it didn’t take much convincing.
He’s a cutie,'" she shared withOprah.
Seeing Eddie Van Halen in person did not disappoint.
“You had to peel me off the floor,” Bertinelli said.
He called her three days later, and the pair became inseparable.
Despite her nice girl image, things weren’t as they seemed.
“He was the good one,” the actor told Oprah.
“I was the bad one.”
The marriage was also marred by infidelity.
Bertinelli admitted that she strayed in her memoir “Losing It.”
“I just wanted somebody to touch me and love me.
And I wasn’t getting it at home.”
But her husband was unfaithful as well.
“Welcome to my life.”
Bertinelli and Van Halen separated in 2001 after twenty years of marriage.
Their bond seemed to grow even stronger once Van Halen was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer in 2017.
Initially, he was given just weeks to live, and he traveled to Germany to seek treatment.
“I can’t explain the feelings Ed and I had for each other,” she wrote.
“I loved him more than I know how to explain and there’s nothing sexual about it.
It was more than that.
And Ed and I understood that.”
Bertinelli’s brother made the introduction while the actor was visiting family in Arizona.
But the two hit it off and bonded over their shared Italian heritage.
“My family is her family,” Vitale said.
“It wasn’t love at first sight; it was family at first sight.”
“He loved me no matter what.
In his way, he’s teaching me to love myself just as I am.”
In 2010, Vitale proposed to Bertinelli in Florence, Italy.
Bertinelli was surprised, even though the pair had been dating for six years.
AlthoughBertinelli was furious with Vitale the night he proposed, she still fondly recalled the event.
“We’d talked about getting married, but I was still shocked,” she toldPeople.
“It was sweet when he asked me, because he was so scared.
I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?'”
The couple appeared to be a perfect match, and Bertinelli gushed about life with her new husband often.
But the couple shared more than just a physical attraction.
They genuinely cared for one another and liked to do little things to keep each other happy.
“She wants me to put the seat down on the toilet.
So, I do.
It’s just nicer for her,” Vitale told Good Housekeeping.
Bertinelli and Vitale also shared a love of food and enjoyed cooking together.
It seems as though the relationship had turned into something that was no longer serving Bertinelli.
“That was just the breaking point for me, where I finally decided I’ve had enough.
I was continuing to tolerate intolerable things, starting with my own words in my own head.”
The couple’s divorce was finalized in November 2022.
“What led me to that?
That’s the stuff I gotta start working on.”
It’s a seesaw of emotions because I was adamant I was never falling in love again."
“My belly is flip-flopping.
This was not supposed to happen,” she said.
Bertinelli’s new love turned out to be writer Mike Goodnough, who confirmed their relationship viaSubstack.
The pair initially met on social media and became friends.
“He’s thoughtful and kind and ridiculously talented.
He’s an amazing writer, he’s gorgeous, like so hot.
He does it for me, big time,” she gushed.
But there seemed to be evidence that the relationship wasn’t as perfect as it appeared.
“The summer has been booked full.
It is challenging,” she said.
In November 2024, Goodnough took to Instagram to post some cryptic messages.
Of course, this led his followers to wonder whether he was referencing his relationship with Bertinelli.
Just days later, it was announced that the couple had called it quits after dating for ten months.
“They are no longer in a relationship,” a source shared with People.
Given her relationship history, the split may have come as a blow to Bertinelli.
I couldn’t stop shaking," shewrote.
She went on to ask her followers if they’d ever experienced something similar and how they had coped.
Bertinelli’s fans commented on her post in droves, wishing her well and sharing their own experiences.
