Actor Valerie Bertinelli is defending herself against online haters who criticized her tribute to her late ex-husband Eddie Van Halen.
Bertinelli doubled down on her latest Instagram post in honor of the sixth anniversary of the rock icon’s death on Oct. 6. This tribute post led some fans to accuse her of continuing her past relationship. But in a new video shared on October 7, Bertinelli told his critics, “you can’t bother me.”
“I love Ed. I never stopped loving Ed. And my heart does,” she said in the clip. “Don’t you want yours to be like that too?”
Bertinelli’s nostalgic photo once featured the couple laughing in the car.
“Photos may fade like old photos, but memories and love never fade,” the 66-year-old artist wrote in the caption of her post.
The former “One Day at a Time” and “Hot in Cleveland” star was married to Van Halen from 1981 to 2007. After being separated for several years, she filed for divorce in 2005. The musician married Janie Liszewski in 2009 and remained married until her death. Meanwhile, Bertinelli married financial planner Tom Vitale in 2011. They divorced in 2022.
Bertinelli, who has a son with rocker Wolfgang Van Halen, 35, responded to criticism in a new video titled “Haters, let’s take a little ride.” She told fans she was “turned down” every time she posted about her late ex.
Bertinelli, who remained close to Eddie Van Halen after their divorce and was at the rocker’s bedside when he died in 2020 after a 20-year battle with cancer, said critics often told her that she “wasn’t allowed to love” her ex-husband.
She said: “These critics berate you and berate you for months, making you think you’re crazy, until you finally say, ‘Okay, okay, I don’t like it.'”
Bertinelli said the snub led him to remove images of the late music legend from his account.
“They will never say, ‘In better days, take down that picture of your ex-husband with your son,’” she shared. “But they say you’re obsessed, call all kinds of nonsense until you take the picture down,” he said.
Bertinelli revealed that the musician, whom she started dating when she was 20, still carries a “big piece” of her heart.
“If I ever fall in love again, I will make room in my heart for that person without touching the love I have for Ed, my son, my daughter-in-law, and all the people I love,” she said. “Your heart opens. Because your heart can hold so much love. All of our hearts can do that.”