Eddie Van Halen’s ex wife Valerie Bertinelli has opened up about their relationship, revealing that the music icon suffered a lot of pain and dealt with it by taking drugs and alcohol.
Speaking of their relationship together Bertinelli told People magazine, while promoting her memoir titled Enough Already: Learning To Love The Way I Am Today, that their time together was “crazy”.
“I mean, there were some crazy times — yes, because there were drugs and alcohol; I mean, the ’80s were crazy — but when you get down to it, Ed had the most generous heart. He was so kind. He just didn’t know how to be that way with himself because he was in so much pain, and he dealt with his pain through drugs and alcohol. And I was too young to really be as compassionate as I could have been back then,” she said.
Bertinelli and Van Halen married in 1981 and divorced in 2007. They share a son named Wolfgang in who was born in 1991. During the interview, Bertinelli fondly reflected on their 26 year marriage.
“I can’t explain the feelings Ed and I had for each other. Who really knows had he not died. I doubt it. 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.
“There is no greater love than what we had between the two of us and with that, we made this beautiful son.”
Van Halen died on October 6, 2020, at the age of 65. The official cause of death is listed on his death certificate as a cerebrovascular accident, or stroke but he has also been battling cancer prior to his death. His son, Wolfgang, shared the devastating news about his father’s passing on Facebook.
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“I can’t believe I’m having to write this,” the statement said, “but my father, Edward Lodewijk Van Halen, has lost his long and arduous battle with cancer this morning. He was the best father I could ever ask for. Every moment I’ve shared with him on and off stage was a gift,” he wrote at the time.
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