Valerie Bertinelli is in the middle of her unexpected renaissance at the age of 63. After a contentious divorce from her second husband, Tom Vitale, the actress is teasing that she has a new man in her life — and it’s a love she didn’t see coming!
“I’m in love,” Bertinelli told People. “It’s a seesaw of emotions because I was adamant, I was never falling in love again.” The TV star believed the dating and ageist stereotypes that she was not going to have a relationship in this season of life, but Cupid has struck her again. “I was supposed to die with my six cats and my dog, and very happily live the rest of my years alone — I’m good alone,” she laughed.
She was likely reacting to the end of her 10-year marriage to Vitale. In 2021, the former couple went their separate ways until they negotiated their divorce in 2022. He tried to challenge their prenuptial agreement while asking for $50,000 monthly in spousal support and around $200,000 in legal fees.
She swore to Hoda Kotb on the Today show that she was done with falling in love. “I am gonna be more than happy to be happily divorced and spend the rest of my life alone,” she claimed in 2022. “I’ll be happy that way. Because of the challenges that I’m going through right now, because divorce sucks. I can’t imagine ever trusting anyone again to let into my life. So I have some trust issues that I’m sure I’m going to have to get past.” Well, look who is singing a different tune just two years later!
Bertinelli is keeping his name a secret for now, and that’s probably a good thing since it seems early in their relationship. But she is getting butterflies just thinking about him. “My belly is flip-flopping. This was not supposed to happen,” she admitted. The former One Day at a Time star believes that getting “intentional about [her] healing” put her on the path toward love. She learned to love herself before letting another person into her life.
“That meant a lot of walks with [my dog] Luna, a lot of therapy sessions, a lot of learning that I deserve to feel good,” she said. Bertinelli teased the identity of her romantic partner which should certainly send the internet detectives into overdrive. He’s an East Coast-based writer whom she platonically connected with a few years ago. The phone calls began earlier this year, and now, it’s taken a romantic twist. (It sounds like a Hallmark movie in the making.) She’s telling everyone that this blossoming romance feels “incredibly right.”
It’s only a matter of time before this secret dynamic duo makes their red-carpet couple debut, but Bertinelli has advice for anyone looking for love because it worked for her. “I found joy first,” she shared, “and then a man entered my life.” That sounds like the perfect recipe for romance!
