In a May 2024 Instagram video, following the debut of her son Wolfgang Van Halen’s episode of Behind the Music, the Hot in Cleveland alum openly discussed how she had idealized her relationship with Eddie Van Halen into a “fantasy, soulmate recreation of history.”
She revealed, “I fell in love with him when I was 20, and it rapidly declined into drugs, and alcohol, and infidelity,” adding that these experiences lacked any semblance of feeling “loved and wanted and cared for,” and certainly nothing that would suggest they were soulmates.
Bertinelli further explained, “But after Ed died, I was more than willing to put myself in the grieving widow category for a man that I hadn’t lived with for 20 years. What we had together was this beautiful son that we both unconditionally loved. That’s what I got out of that marriage, was Wolfie, the best thing that ever happened to me. Not a soulmate.”
Eddie passed away on October 6, 2020, at the age of 65. Despite his long battle with cancer, his death certificate cited cerebrovascular accident or stroke as the immediate cause of death.
