Valerie Bertinelli says 'I love you' were her final words to Eddie Van Halen

Valerie Bertinelli says she and Eddie Van Halen shared a tender moment on the guitarist’s deathbed. 'My final words to him when he was taking his last breath in the hospital were, 'I love you,' the actress, 65, writes in her newly released memoir, Getting Naked: The Quiet Work of Becoming Perfectly Imperfect.

Van Halen was hospitalized in 2019 after battling throat cancer for five years, had also been diagnosed with oral cancer and lost one-third of his tongue during treatment. He died in 2020 of a stroke at the age of 65. The couple met in 1980 at a Van Halen concert and married the following year.

They welcomed their son, Wolfgang, in 1991 and were married for twenty years before splitting. Bertinelli filed for divorce in 2005 after four years of separation, and they were officially divorced in 2007. Bertinelli says Van Halen’s alcoholism was a major factor in their split.

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