Eddie Van Halen was born in January 1955, and he developed into one of the most outstanding guitarists in rock history during the course of his life. Halen’s life seemed to be heading in the direction of completion until he stumbled across the stunning Valerie Bertinelli, just as his music career was at its pinnacle.
Soon after making her debut on “One Day at a Time,” Bertinelli established herself as one of America’s most beloved girls next door. When she was just 20, her brothers brought her to a Van Halen performance in Shreveport, Louisiana, and it was love at first sight when she met the guitarist there.
Bertinelli had a strong attraction to Van Halen and was pleasantly delighted when, three days after the event, she received a phone from him asking her if she would be willing to see him. She was able to recall:
After that, I went out and paid her a visit, and from that point on, we were never really apart.
Bertinelli believed that despite Van Halen’s reputation as a bad boy, he was a gentleman. Shortly after the two of them began dating, Van Halen insisted on sleeping in a separate bed because he was the type of gentleman who did things like that.
After just eight months of knowing one other, they had already chosen a date for their wedding and were making plans to be married. Their romance moved quite quickly. In the weeks and months building up to their big day, though, Halen had developed a habit that was both annoying and unhealthy. Even though his manager, Noel E. Monk, asked him to stop drinking and smoking on a daily basis, he continued to do both nevertheless.
On the morning of April 11, 1981, the two sweethearts went down the aisle at St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Westwood, California, to start their new lives together. He had sworn to abstain from drugs and alcohol on his wedding day.
After the ceremony was over, Monk assisted the newlyweds in making their way through the swarm of photographers and to the waiting vehicle in a secure and safe manner. However, when guests came for the reception at the famous Grayhall home in Beverly Hills, Halen and Bertinelli were nowhere to be seen.
One of the bathrooms in the house would be where Monk would discover them. It turned out that Halen had been able to become drunk in the little amount of time that they had been missing, and now the devastated bride sat motionless in her gown with her hair pulled back in a state of disbelief as she sobbed.
Bertinelli pulled herself up, helped her husband clean up, and made him look smart for their celebration, despite the fact that her wedding day did not go according to the expectations she had set for it. They made a grand entry into the ballroom as their loved ones and friends clapped for them as they came from the restroom holding hands.
It’s possible that the peculiarity of their wedding day was a portent of a turbulent marriage to come, but the fact that Bertinelli married her hero was accomplishment enough for her. After being married, the pair seemed to be so in tune with one another that they were able to imitate one another’s movements when they were first interviewed.
From the outside looking in, it seemed as if they had the ideal marriage. She had wed one of the most talented musicians of their day, and despite the fact that many other women had desired to be with him, she was the one who emerged victorious and was able to claim the prize for herself. But Bertinelli, who was able to see their marriage from the inside, claims that it was unhappy and that they lacked connection:
“He had his obligations of what he had to do, and I had my responsibilities,” she adds. “We each had our own responsibilities.” “And we believed that because you simply reside in the same home, there must be some kind of link between the two of you, but there isn’t.”
In spite of the fact that their marriage was becoming worse and worse, the couple managed to find cause for celebration when Bertinelli gave birth to their child, Wolfgang, in 1991. They spent the first 16 years of their son’s life together as a couple before deciding to divorce in 2007. She revealed that
“After Ed and I divorced, I told myself that I would complete parenting my kid on my own. I’ll simply disappear for a while, adopt around 40 cats, and let myself become nice and plump.”
Bertinelli regards being a mother as one of her most significant accomplishments, and she has nothing but love for her son, whom she claims often sees with his girlfriend, Andrea. After playing for a spell with his own heavy metal band, Tremonti, Wolfgang now serves as the bassist for his late father’s band, Van Halen. Prior to that, he was a member of Tremonti.
Over the course of many years, Bertinelli made every effort to keep up with the rocker lifestyle led by her husband on Friday and Saturday evenings as well as during the weekdays when she was not filming “One Day at a Time.” But it was just one aspect of the challenges she faced.
She also found out that Van Halen was cheating on her after she overheard a phone conversation in which Van Halen was telling another person, who she believed to be a woman, that he could not wait to get out of the marriage. This led her to believe that Van Halen was having an affair with the other person.
A few years later, she got a phone call from an irate guy who claimed his wife was having an affair with Van Halen. This call provided her with all the proof she needed. However, the musician was not solely responsible for the difficulties that they had in their marriage.
Bertinelli also said that she had cheated on her husband in the past. After they had been married for a few years, she cheated on her husband with a drummer from a different band. A few years later, she kissed a female coworker without her husband’s knowledge.
She said that all she wanted was for someone to hold her, show her affection, and pay her the kind of attention that she did not get at home. She had been looking for this person for a long time. She was aware that there was no justification for her infidelity and she feels shame for having chosen that road. She was thinking:
“What I ought to have done is addressed the issues in our marriage, obtained a divorce, and after that, if I want to go do anything, I have the freedom to do so. But it was a major, major error of judgment.”
In spite of the fact that they did not finalize their divorce for another six years, the pair decided to end their union in 2001, after they had been married for a total of 20 years due to the many difficulties that had arisen in their relationship.
Bertinelli claimed that the primary motivation for the choice was her kid, whom she did not want to grow up seeing their unhealthy marriage in any capacity. “One of the many reasons why Ed and I broke up is to offer Wolfie a better perspective of what two people who are purportedly in love treat one other like,” said the woman. “Ed and I were together for a long time.” She remarked, adding:
“Ed and I were not treating each other as two people who loved one other, and Wolfie was able to see that by the way in which we interacted with each other.”
However, it did not make the situation any simpler. Bertinelli resorted to stress eating as a means of coping with the situation. She consoled herself with jalapeno poppers and the only thing that broke her out of her glum state was when she saw she was gaining weight.
Despite the difficulties that plagued their relationship, the pair managed to remain together even after they had legally separated up until Bertinelli was prepared to go. They parted ways peacefully, and Van Halen even gave his blessing to her new residence, making certain that it was located in convenient proximity to both his home and Wolfgang’s school.
Following the finalization of her divorce from Halen in 2007, she went on to meet and fall in love with Tom Vitale, an entrepreneur and film producer. In Italy, in March of 2010, Vitale made his proposal, and a year and a day later, on January 1, 2011, the couple wed in Malibu. A one-of-a-kind wedding ceremony was held, which was attended by a large number of people, including Bertinelli’s former husband, Halen.
Bertinelli submitted a petition for divorce to the Superior Court of Los Angeles County after being married for more than a decade, stating “irreconcilable differences” as the reason for her action.
Even Van Halen did not want to be left behind. After she began working as his publicist, he was also able to meet Janie Liszewski, whom he eventually fell in love with. In the beginning, Liszewski was both honored and eager to work beside the famous musical powerhouse, and he was also looking forward to traveling with him.
Over time, they became close to one another and eventually formed love emotions for one another. In addition, on August 4, 2008, when they were on vacation in Hawaii, Van Halen dropped down on one knee and proposed to his girlfriend.
After a year of dating, the couple tied the knot in the garden of Van Halen’s seven-acre mansion located in the hills above Studio City, California. The wedding was presided over by Alex Van Halen, who is also an ordained preacher, and Wolfgang served as the best man for the ceremony.
The custom champagne and pink Hanna Hartnell gown that Liszewski wore looked very stunning when she was accessorized with a matching bracelet and earrings by Bulgari. At the same moment, Van Halen and Wolfgang were both wearing cotton slacks by Sy Devore, button-down shirts with the tails untucked, and sandals that were similar to flip-flops.
Even though Van Halen’s “When It’s Love” was playing in the background, more than one hundred guests watched intently as the bride’s mother accompanied her down the aisle. Among the guests was Bertinelli, who had previously been married to Van Halen.
In 2001, Van Halen was given his initial cancer diagnosis, and as part of his treatment, he had a portion of his tongue surgically removed. However, in 2019, he started battling yet another bout of the disease, this time mostly in his throat.
Bertinelli would later tell that Van Halen endured the harrowing voyage on his alone since Liszewski had moved out of the home they shared in the latter two years of his life. Bertinelli made this revelation in a subsequent interview.
In spite of this, Bertinelli was able to get a glimpse of Van Halen when he visited her house for Thanksgiving one year. Her father, brother, sister-in-law, son, and other friends were among the visitors that she hosted at her house, and she cooked meals for all of them.
After having a hearty feast on the food that Bertinelli had spent hours cooking, Van Halen wanted to talk to her in private. However, since every room in the house was packed with people, they exited the home and got into one of their friend’s vehicles outside.
After everyone had settled down, Halen gave Bertinelli a simple, pendant-sized bar made of pure gold that was contained inside a sleek black box. He admitted to her that when he was having treatment for cancer in Germany, he had thought about her, which is the reason why he had sent her the gift. He continued, his eyes welling up with tears, saying:
“I really hope that it doesn’t strike you as odd. You are aware that I purchased this present for my ex-wife, although I did not purchase anything for my current wife. I absolutely adore you.”
She said that she loved him in return, but later she would also explain that she knew his then-wife also loved him and that despite the fact that they were not living together at the time, they were still trying to stay close.
At the end of September 2020, Halen’s cancer had completely taken over his body, and he spent the rest of his days in the hospital. Bertinelli and Wolfgang did not miss a single day of Eddie Van Halen’s hospital hospitalization and spent the whole time by his side.
During his last moments, he did not spend them alone. He never spent a moment away from the presence of the people he held dear, especially his wife, Liszewski, and his brother, Alex. Halen passed away on October 6, 2020, which was a tragic day for everybody involved, but not before he expressed his love for Bertinelli and Wolfgang.
Bertinelli said that she and Halen still enjoyed a very tight tie, despite the fact that they had been divorced for a very long time. Their relationship was so intricate and profound that others were unable to comprehend it. Even many years after the dissolution of their marriage, their love for one another remained strong.
On Twitter, Liszewski expressed her condolences to the family of her late husband, adding that while they did not always have an easy marriage, they did always have a connection. She wrote in a tweet:
“My spouse, my love, my Peep all rolled into one. My mind, body, and spirit have all been broken into a million little pieces. I had no idea that it was even somewhat possible to shed so many tears or experience such overwhelming misery.”
Bertinelli said on the Kelly Clarkson program that she could still sense Halen’s presence in her life, despite the fact that they had been separated for the last two decades. The actress from “Taken Away” said that many years ago, they had struck a contract in which she promised that she would recognize his presence if she ever saw a certain kind of bird.
Years later, when she saw three birds, she “spoke” to Halem, telling him that if he were there, he should send a flock of birds instead of just three of them since she was confused about whether or not three birds still signaled his presence. A flock of birds swooped past before she could even finish the statement she was about to say.
