Valerie Bertinelli reveals Eddie Van Halen’s final words before his death

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Valerie Bertinelli has revealed the last words her former husband Eddie Van Halen said to her before he died on Oct. 6, 2020, at the age of 65.

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“‘I love you’ are the last words Ed says to Wolfie and me, and they are the last words we say to him before he stops breathing,” the One Day at a Time star wrote in an excerpt from her new memoir, Enough Already: Learning to Love the Way I Am Today , republished by People magazine.

The end, she adds, came in “slow motion.”

The Food Network personality was married to the guitar great for 20 years until they divorced in 2007. In the lead up to his death, both she and the couple’s son Wolfgang were regulars at the hospital alongside his second wife, Janie Liszewski, and his brother Alex.

In her new book, Bertinelli, 61, wrote candidly about her failed marriage to Van Halen and what led to their split.

“I hated the drugs and the alcohol, but I never hated him. I saw his pain,” she said.

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“Maybe next time,” Bertinelli said to Van Halen as he was dying. “Maybe next time, we’ll get it right.”

Although the pair was portrayed as a “mismatch,” Bertinelli said the couple shared a close bond that continued for years after their split.

“I can’t explain the feelings Ed and I had for each other,” she said. “Who really 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.”

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The Hot in Cleveland star went on to describe a tender moment they shared in 2019 after he returned from getting cancer treatment in Germany and he presented her with a pendant.

“I hope you don’t think it’s weird, you know, that I bought my ex-wife this gift and didn’t get my wife anything,” he told her. “I just love you.”

Bertinelli says the exchange was his way of admitting he “messed up.”

But, she acknowledged, “I contributed to our troubles too and I am also sorry.”

Bertinelli, who split from her second husband Tom Vitale in November, said her bond with Van Halen didn’t factor in her decision to file for separation.

“We grew apart,” she said. “The decision has nothing to do with my love for Ed. I wish Tom the best and I know he feels the same way about me.”

She said that while both of their second marriages were struggling there was little chance they would have gotten back together.

“But I do know if one of us were to open up, the other one would too, and I don’t want to get into that.”

Shortly after Van Halen’s death, Bertinelli posted a heartbreaking tribute to the rocker.

“I’m so grateful Wolfie and I were able to hold you in your last moments,” she wrote in an Instagram post . “I will see you in our next life my love.”

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mdaniell@postmedia.com